Thundersdawn 10: Dawning Alliance
by Chaos Eternus
Summary: [Complete]When Enerina is sent to investigate why every gate in an area of space, including those on the Abydos cartouche and from O'Neill's ancient data, will not lock, she finds something totally unexpected...
1. Prologue

10: Dawning Alliance  
by Chaoseternus

When Enerina is sent to investigate why every gate in an area of space will not establish a wormhole, she finds something totally unexpected...

Prologue

Enerina smiled as _Ravenbright _station slowly slipped away behind the _Del Shakka Mel, _for the first time in almost a month it looked like she and her crew were going to have an easy time of it.

It was a good thing too, Jaffa may be able to last longer than normal humans without any rest or relaxation but still they did need a break every now and again.

They hadn't had any since the Edonia mission started.

Lucky for her, she was an ally and could therefore pull her ship from the Edonia operation without any real repercussions, demand an easy assignment for a while. And this certainly looked like an easy assignment; find out why an entire sector of space refused to connect to the gate network, despite addresses being present on both the Abydos cartouche and on the Ancient addresses O'Neill loaded into the Tau'ri computers all those years ago.

Sure, they were always coming across bad addresses, where the gate was buried, moved destroyed… there were hundreds of reasons why an address would no longer work but for every address in an entire sector of space to be dead?

Theoretically possible that it could happen by chance, but it was _extremely _ unlikely. No, something was going on here, as was proven by the tendency of even the Goa'uld to avoid this area and they only did that when there was a threat they could not deal with.

Curiosity drove the Tau'ri to send her to investigate, but she had no complaints. There destination was far from Tau'ri space, it would take her some time to get their. Time enough for her and her Jaffa to rest and recuperate from the overworking of recent times.

Enerina was glad of the break, but still she would have to make sure her crew was ready by the time they reached their destination, they had no intelligence, no clue what exactly they were flying into. They would have to be ready for anything.


	2. One

10: Dawning Alliance  
by Chaoseternus

When Enerina is sent to investigate why every gate in an area of space will not establish a wormhole, she finds something totally unexpected...

One

Enerina sighed as the gate closed behind her.

They were now on the very border of the 'dead' sector, at the very last StarGate before steeping into unknown territory.

Now their mission would truly begin.

With a flick of the wrist, she signalled the Jaffa around her to grab the last of the supplies that had been sent through the gate and head back to the ship.

Her mission had just become more complicated, by far.

Her face carefully neutral, hiding her thoughts from her crew she sat down in the command chair as the _Ha'tak _ rose swiftly from the planets surface.

No longer was this just a simple investigate and report, now she had to search for resources and for industrial civilisations that would be willing to help the Tau'ri in their war.

She personally considered that a no-hoper. The Aschen at least should have taught the Tau'ri of being extremely wary of industrial or advanced civilisations that were willing to aid her. They usually just turned out to be interested only in their own agenda.

More often than not, industrial or advanced either meant unwilling to help or unable too or even worse, just painted a target on their heads which somebody, usually a snake would quickly come and shoot.

A slight hum filled the room as the ship went into hyper, but Enerina, deep in her thoughts, barely noticed it.

No, she had little hope, but she would try.

Her allies had placed too much faith, too much trust in her for her not to try, after all they were at war with the Goa'uld and technically she was a Goa'uld, what reason did they truly have to trust her?

But they did, they had from day one. That kind of faith she always felt the drive to repay, to prove herself worthy. Enerina was willing to admit to herself that that was just an extension of her own insecurity.

Enerina looked up startled as around her the ship rumbled and shook, the erratic manoeuvres almost becoming violent as the low level hum of the hyper drives rose to a painful screech.

"Report!" she snapped, falling easily into the Tau'ri militaries way of speaking.

"Unknown Milady…" the tall, vaguely American Indian Jaffa at the main controls responded, "it's almost as if we were entering a region of hyperspace instability"

Enerina frowned, such areas were rare and usually known to all but it would explain why so few returned from this area…

"Drop us out of hyper, and run a full check on the engines"

"Yes, Milady" the Jaffa responded, his hands rapidly but surely manipulating the controls in front of him.

Enerina frowned as the rumbling faded, there had been an odd note in the engines just as they left hyper…

"De'elc," she added, speaking to the Jaffa at the controls "make sure they run a full check on the engines, I don't want to be stranded this far from friendly territory"

"Yes, Milady," De'elc hesitated, "should I ask the Tau'ri science team to look over the sensor logs?"

Enerina sent him an approving glance, "yes, see to it"

Enerina sat shocked as the report slowly settled into her mind.

It wasn't just hyperspace instability which had caused the main drives problems, it was a hyperspace _barrier. _ They had quite literally stopped short of the barrier itself, the unstable movements the ship had suffered was the result of energy bleeding off from the barrier itself.

And the barrier stretched as far as their sensors could see.

Considering she knew the ancients had operated in this area, had gates active in this area at the time of their fall she just had to wonder where the barrier had come, from, her hereditary memories were quite specific that the barrier hadn't always been here, that when the Unas were still the primary hosts of the Goa'uld, their ships had passed through this area with little trouble except from the retreating Ancients themselves.

So where did this come from?

Was it natural?

How was it powered?

And what was on the other side?

Enerina snorted, it explained why they couldn't connect to gates in this sector though. If it surrounded the whole area, no signals especially those of the gate network would get through.

It was suggestive though that the barrier appeared apparently after the Ancients were supposed to have left.

Very suggestive indeed.

"How far does the barrier appear to extend?" she asked, gazing at the irksome Tau'ri scientist beside her.

"Well," Doctor Rodney McKay replied, his hands gesturing, "we don't know. You see the barrier blocks subspace and the sensors are subspace based so they can't pass through the barrier. However, that did allow us to determine exactly where the barrier _was _ and…"

"Do we have any way of determining its thickness or even what's on the other side?" Enerina interrupted, hoping to stop him before he got into full flow.

"None whatsoever"

Enerina quirked at eyebrow at the suddenly quiet scientist, "not even" she continued with heavy irony, gesturing at the window in front of her, "visually?"

"Well… that would work" Rodney stuttered, a little surprised, "wouldn't tell you much though…"

Enerina shot him a wry glance, and turned to De'elc, "take us ahead _slowly _ De'elc"

"Yes Milady"


	3. Two

10: Dawning Alliance  
by Chaoseternus

When Enerina is sent to investigate why every gate in an area of space will not establish a wormhole, she finds something totally unexpected...

Two

The ship rumbled and shook, the barrier acting harsh and abrasive on all the subspace active components of the _Ha'tak _ as the _Del Shakka Mel _ slowly made its way across the barrier via normal space, a journey that would in hyper just take seconds taking them a week as they slowly crossed space.

It was not an easy journey, the constant unpredictable movements of the ship made sleeping, any kind of rest difficult. Eating became a chore as the food would literally just jump off the plate unless you were careful. Jaffa and Tau'ri reported to Enerina in droves for treatment as sudden movements of the ship caused broken bones and worse.

Even the ship was damaged, as crystals jumped from their sockets, sending random surges through the ships systems and slowly degrading performance as the crew frantically but safely tried to keep the _Del _ operational, fighting a rapidly losing battle.

But they survived; their sub-light transit preventing them from being destroyed like so many ships had been, rushing headlong into the barrier unawares.

McKay blinked, shooting into full awareness as some drive; some instinct woke him instantly from his sleep. He blinked, the sheets falling from his body as he rose, his mind sharply analysing his surroundings as he tried to figure out what had changed.

"The ships stopped shaking" the words left his mouth, causing cheers to register across the dormitory before the truth had even registered in his own mind.

A few seconds later, his mind having caught up with his mouth, McKay rose, frantically throwing his uniform over the T-shirt and briefs he had been sleeping in, "We must have left the barrier behind"

"Yeah" Sheppard commented, a slightly condescending look on his face as he regarded the scientist, "either that, or we hit the eye of the storm"

"Well" McKay replied, strapping his boots on, "either way it will tell us something about the nature of this barrier"

"yeah, like where the edge is, or isn't as the case may be" Sheppard commented wryly, following McKay out of the dormitory, the sounds of activity increasing behind them as the other Tau'ri personnel slowly readied themselves for the new day.

"Exactly," McKay continued, "though even if it is just the eye, then it will give us time to get some observations and more sensor data, maybe even get the ship repaired"

"Repairs good, repair a _very _ good idea" Sheppard jumped straight on the repair comment, he didn't like being in a half operational ship, no sir, he wanted his home fully operational and its weapons and shields ready to deal with any threats.

McKay was thinking g of other reasons, "yes, having the sensors fully operational again would give us the opportunity to fully probe the barrier, not that we'll get much information on the barrier itself but still…"

"you know" Sheppard commented, as they strode through the doors into the room that had hastily been set up as a lab, "I cant believe we actually just agreed on something, okay different reasons for it but we both said the ship being repaired would be a good thing, now how could that happen?"

"Well" McKay said, becoming distracted as he got a look at the data flowing from the ships sensor arrays, "We should forget it ever happened, cant dwell on a fluke…"

"What?" Sheppard asked, as McKay slowly trailed off.

"I think we can rule out having found an eye, sensors are clear of subspace anomalies as far as they can see on three quadrants" McKay glanced up at the pilot, "that fourth quadrant is behind us, of course"

"Of course" Sheppard replied wryly, he could figure out something as obvious as that for himself thank you, "anything registering on sensors the local fighter commander should be aware of?"

"Err…" Rodney glanced back at the screen, "several star systems, no signs of any power sources of any kind, no indications of any sentient life in sensor range…" Rodney's brow furrowed, "that's odd"

"What's odd?" Sheppard replied, instantly shifting in 'Major' mode.

"Radioactive debris is registering in one of the local systems" Rodney tapped swiftly at the computer, "barely registering I should say"

"Are we talking naturally radioactive or boom boom, you go bye-bye now"

Rodney glanced up from the screen, anxiously, "the isotope readings suggest artificial but at this range they are highly unreliable, I'd need a closer look"

"We'll, you best go have a word with Enerina then" John Sheppard replied, heading for the door, "I'll be prepping my bird for launch"

"Ahh Major" the scientists voice made John look up from his craft with a grin, which he rapidly hid, "Enerina is keeping the _Del Shakka Mel _ here for repairs and to get more scans of the barrier, or at least its boundary since the barrier itself prevents a direct read, but she said if you agree that a pair of _F-302's _ could go, loaded with…"

Sheppard cut in, finishing the sentence with a wry, amused grin plastered across his face, "the additional sensor pods" he tapped as the pod next to him on his fighter, then pointed across to the next fighter where Rodney could also see sensor pods loaded.

Infuriated by the implied insult, that he Rodney McKay was so predictable, he glared at the pilot.

"What," John replied to the look,"like Enerina was going to give any other answer, she has her crew and ship to look after first, the primary mission is secondary. She wasn't going to divert the ship whilst so many repairs needed to be carried out"

Appeased, Rodney asked "well, when can we go then?"

"As soon," Sheppard reached down to the bag at his feet and threw it over to Rodney "as you are properly dressed for the occasion"

"Well," the words slipped from Sheppard's mouth as he gazed through the window of his fighter upon the debris they were investigating, "I think we can safely rule out natural origin"

"What" Rodney glanced up from his readouts, then shot a glance out the window, "yes quite, whatever the debris is made of it's highly energy reflective, sensors are having a hard time probing it"

He glanced back down at his readouts again.

"Looks like hull armour" Sheppard observed, making Rodney glance up again.

Rodney frowned, tapping a close up of the debris onto his monitor, "I see what you mean, interesting"

Sheppard grinned, knowing Rodney could not see it from the back seat of the fighter; he had caught the slight edge to the scientist's voice, now for the real fun.

"You know" he added, nonchalantly, "that almost looks like the remains of writing on that piece of debris there"

"What?" Rodney snapped, his face shooting up from his screens once more "would you mind stopping with the observations? I am the scientist here, it's my job to analyse, yours to keep me safe"

Sheppard chuckled, arrogant scientist baiting was always fun.

Rodney grunted, looking swiftly over the large segment in question, "you're correct; it does look like writing, I don't recognise it though"

Rodney frowned, glancing down to make sure everything was recoding okay, then continued, "I think from the sheer thickness of the armour and its apparent effectiveness is dissipating energy…" Rodney glared at the sensor readouts as he spoke "we can infer whoever this belonged too did not have shielding as we know it"

"No" Sheppard replied, an edge in his voice, "how much armour do _Ha'taks _have? How much armour do _Dauntless's _and _Prometheus's _have? Armour, or lack thereof does not indicate whether you have shielding or not"

"Yes, but the quality of the armour…"

"That's an assumption, and a bad one at that" Sheppard reprimanded McKay, "we are always researching better forms of armour to increase our chances in combat, especially for the _Dauntless _II's with their minimum energy signature requirements, this could just be the same thing just more advanced, you don't know and shouldn't assume"

Rodney sarcastically spat back, "and since when did you become an expert in scientific procedure?"

Sheppard snorted, "Never. I just know a bad assumption when I see it; you learn that at the academy. Assumption in a military environment is the mother of all fuck-ups"

Sheppard frowned, "strangely enough, the chef at the local restaurant was always saying that too, especially after that incident on the train with his niece…"

He shrugged it off, "time we reported back, batch your readings and notes up ready to transmit"


	4. Three

10: Dawning Alliance  
by Chaoseternus

When Enerina is sent to investigate why every gate in an area of space will not establish a wormhole, she finds something totally unexpected...

Three

A council convenes; the room is dark, shadowy lit only by several spaced beams of light, placed in a circle over the room.

"The barrier is string, our most advanced sensors cannot penetrate it" the first voice, male and strong, almost military speaks.

"That barrier is not mentioned in our records, in fact the records are specific, at the time of the last war, there was no barrier here" This voice speaks of authority, of command, of leadership and comes from a grey cloaked figure slowly striding around the edge of the room.

"We should not attempt to cross it at sub-light, we have no idea of the depth of this barrier" A third voice speaks.

"And yet, we must" a fourth figure steps forward, the hood of the cloak slipping back over her head, "after all, how else will we know if the prophecy is true, if the shadows are once again returning to plague us"

"Delenn speaks the truth" the second says, striding to his place in the circle, "We cannot go back without completing our mission and yet we cannot go forward as we are"

"We must attempt a sub-light transit" Delenn looked anxiously around the room, "but the little we know of such barriers suggests the transit is hazardous, requiring an unusually sound ship"

"We could order the crew to reinforce the hull" third speaks.

A slight frown on his face, first steps forward, "We are being scanned"

Startled gasps fill the room as the lights flicker, but first just nods, "the scans are powerful and are beginning to interfere with ships systems"

"Where are the scans coming from?" second asks, taking the developments in his stride with practised ease.

"A ship just coming into sensor range…" one glanced around disturbed, "the silhouette does not match any on our databases, nor does it appear to be of any race known to us"

"Show us" two commands.

A hologram lights the room, showing a sketchy, blurred outline of a vaguely ovoid shaped vessel, to which a sharp point appeared to be attached to the top.

"We are approaching with gunports open" first continues, "as is the custom of the warrior caste"

"Milady, the unidentified ship is readying weapons!" De'elc shouted, red lights' flickering across the image on his screen as power was detected being diverted into offensive systems.

Calmly, implacably Enerina voice quietly commanded that shields were to be raised. Inside, her thoughts were spinning, chaotic, uncontrolled.

She wanted to do this, to make first contact, bring another potential ally into the war against the Goa'uld but there were so many ways it could go wrong, so many ways she could disappoint her allies the Tau'ri who had accepted her when so many would have killed her out of hand.

But she had never tried to contact anyone new peacefully before.

Delenn stepped forward, shocked as the holographic image of the vessel disappeared abruptly, leaving the room in almost darkness once more.

"Sensors can no longer detect the unknown ship; they appear to have a jamming field in operation" first spoke again, fear now tinting his voice as the few lights in the room slowly began to fade, "jump drives have now been disabled by the interference"

"If they strike, we cannot retreat" a fifth voice, also military sounding now spoke, "we have a word for this, decapitation strike"

"The entire Minbari government in one place" One added.

De'elc frowned, then his voice low and menacing "they now appear to be targeting us"

"And still no sign of any shields" McKay's smug voice sounded, earning him a sharp glare from Sheppard, Enerina noted.

De'elc stiffened, "we are under attack! Weapons fire emanating from the unidentified vessels, shields are eroding"

Enerina frowned; sighing unhappily she bowed her head, not noticing as Sheppard strode quickly over to the sensor screens, "return fire"

"Wait!" Sheppard's voice broke into the room, loud and urgent.

First stepped forward, confused "the unidentified vessel is not returning fire"

His expression changed suddenly, to one of delight, "the interference has disappeared, we now have jump capability, recommend we retreat immediately"

"Wait!" unconsciously echoing Sheppard from seconds before, Delenn shouted into the room, "they could have destroyed us easily, why didn't they?"

First snorted, "the joy of the hunt perhaps?"

Delenn looked directly at the council's leader, number two, "I recommend we cease anything that could be construed as hostile, drop to normal space and begin preparations for first contact"

"No" First stepped forward, shocked "we would be vulnerable to attack, we need to retreat, seek reinforcement"

"No" second slowly said, "is it coincidence they appear now? With the Shadow war on the horizon?"

He glanced around the room, "I think not. Jump to normal space and begin preparations for first contact. Divert power from weapons but do _not _close the gun ports. If they prove hostile we can be ready more rapidly if they are already open, if not then as the Warrior caste say, it is just a gesture of respect, showing we hide nothing"

"Well, Shepard you surprise me" McKay said as he glanced over the meagre sensor data of the unidentified vessel, "you do appear to be right however," McKay glances up at Enerina, "Our sensors do appear to have been interfering with their systems"

"To the extent which could be considered a hostile action" Shepard added, needling McKay for not spotting it first.

De'elcs voice broke into their conversation, "they are diverting power from weapons… and preparing to jump"

"Follow them out of hyper" Enerina ordered, her shaky voice betraying her fear at how close they had come to blowing her first First Contact mission, "and tell Weir to get her team together, we have to arrange a close encounter of the third kind…"

McKay frowned, "I suppose we have you to thank for that one, Major"

Sheppard just grinned, and mentally reminded himself to pick his DVD back up later.


	5. Four

10: Dawning Alliance  
by Chaoseternus

When Enerina is sent to investigate why every gate in an area of space will not establish a wormhole, she finds something totally unexpected...

Four

Delenn frowned as she glanced over the shuttle that was slowly approaching. It looked crude, cumbersome to her eyes, all sharp edges and triangles but yet it came from a ship powerful enough that its sensors alone appeared to be enough to disable the Minbari flagship.

Even worse, they had found a match in the historical records for the ship, or at least the design and technology it appeared to be based on.

The ship was derived from Shadow technology.

It bore none of the markings associated with the shadows themselves, which was somewhat of a blessing but it begged so many questions. How had they gotten shadow technology, shadow designs? When had they gained them? What did they know of the shadows?

Were they friendly, or did they serve the shadows?

Delenn shivered, as most junior member of the grey council she had been chosen to stay aboard, greet the newcomers and try to determine their allegiance, their purpose, their race, while the rest of the Grey Council decamped to a support ship, ready to leave at a moments notice should they prove hostile.

Delenn smothered a chuckle; it had been… illuminating to see certain members of the council literally manhandled off the ship in order to get them to safety. That was an image she would treasure for quite a few years.

The airlock to her side opened with a sigh, and Delenn turned.

Before her stood five people, only one appeared to be female. They lacked headridges, instead the head was covered by fur. Their bodies were clothed, a relief to her since the last first contact she had been at, and at least one of the team was coloured black, and not the familiar pink she saw even amongst her own people. Delenn guessed in an instant that these could pass for Minbari, with only minor prosthetics to add the headridge.

Parallel evolution perhaps she thought to herself, and then she stopped her mental ruminations and concentrated on the women's words;

"Greetings, I am Doctor Elizabeth Weir of StarGate Command of the Tau'ri" she paused, but Delenn barely noticed, Tau'ri, where had she heard that term before?, "We are explorers and hope to form peaceful relations with you and your people"

Delenn frowned, Tau'ri was flickering at the edge of her consciousness, it was a word she had heard before but the rest was gibberish to her and apparently to the ships translation matrixes too.

The women spoke again, and Delenn shivered as she recognized the language if not the words themselves. She spoke the language of the Shadows, the dark ones, the debased ascendants and their ilk.

This time the translation matrix kicked in, and Delenn heard every word.

She smiled slightly, her instincts telling her that this women and her associates were trustworthy, "I am Delenn of the Grey Council of the Minbari, welcome aboard"

"Grey Council? Is that like your leading council, your rulers?"

Delenn frowned, but answered, "Yes"

The gentleman looked faintly impressed, "nice, I'm Major John Sheppard; this is Doctor Rodney McKay, Lieutenant Aiden Ford and our medical doctor, Carson Beckett"

"I am honoured, if you could please follow me" Delenn stepped back then slowly lead the way across the ship to the main conference room.

It seemed she had come across friends or at least not enemies which was good enough. She would make peace, find out what they knew, if anything, of the shadows and send them on their way.

Then they could begin again their search for evidence of the upcoming shadow war.

Enerina sighed, relaxing as the report flashed across her screen.

First contact, a peaceful first contact with an alien race which wasn't either overwhelmingly advanced, or overwhelmingly primitive. That was something of a first, the only other time they had come close was with the Colonials but they had been refugees. This group did not act or feel like refugees, they seemed from the report and the teams observations to be a proud, if a bit arrogant and self centred race.

But there was an issue, they had gotten glimpses of slight fear and heard snatches of something that made them think the Minbari were preparing for a war against a great enemy.

Enerina smirked slightly, a hint of the Goa'uld in her coming through. That they could use, it was a wedge into an alliance with the Minbari and the Tau'ri, one which both could benefit from. Better technology for the Minbari and the assistance of an advanced civilisation for the Tau'ri, hell just arranging a trade agreement with a space faring civilisation, one that had hyper would be a hell of a boast to the Tau'ri.

Enerina rolled her eyes as a thought struck her, after this she was going to have to wear sunglasses all the time, otherwise the light flashing off all the medals the Tau'ri would be handing out like confetti might blind her.


	6. Five

10: Dawning Alliance  
by Chaoseternus

When Enerina is sent to investigate why every gate in an area of space will not establish a wormhole, she finds something totally unexpected...

Five

Enerina frowned, the puzzled and somewhat bemused expressions on the faces the returning diplomatic party were not what she had been expecting, had they run into some strange alien custom without a camera present to capture the embarrassing moment?

She hoped not, Carter had made her orders quite specific concerning Rodney McKay and anything embarrassing and she didn't want to disappoint the SGC's Head of Sciences.

After all, she had some very interesting stories about General O'Neill, just the sort of thing to remember and treasure when Jack was in a difficult mood…

"Enerina" a bemused Weir told her, "we know who the shadows are"

Enerina raised a sardonic eyebrow, "Shadows? Yes, aren't they what's left behind when somebody stands in the way of the sunlight?"

Weir flushed, "sorry, I forgot you hadn't got that far. The Minbari's great enemy, the cause of their military build-up is the Goa'uld Anubis"

Interested, Enerina leaned forward in her throne, "Anubis? I was under the impression he was severely weakened, and losing ground all the time"

Enerina paused, then her eyebrows shot into her hairline, "and when did a civilisation this far out, protected by the hyper barrier come into contact with Anubis?"

"We don't know, but the Minbari seem happy for us to look at their archives, correlate with our own and see what we can figure out" Sheppard replied, "just so long as we remember to send the Minbari a copy of everything we find that's relevant"

Enerina nodded, "do it, and fast. As far as I am aware none of our current intelligence even suggests Anubis has operated in this area for any significant length of time, the old systems lords yes, Maktenos has scouted but Anubis? No, we need to know exactly what he has been up to"

"Yeah, but there is a problem"

Enerina sighed, she should have heard that one coming, "see, the Minbari have already fought a war with Anubis, only last time they had assistance.

From the Ancients, whom they called Vorlons"

Enerina practically shot out of her seat with shock, "Ancients? How long ago was this war? Exactly how long has Anubis been a threat?"

Weir voice was quite, contemplative and worried as she replied, "apparently the war occurred about five thousand years ago"

"This" McKay continued, "Is a problem because the Ancients were supposed to be long gone by then, even the gate in Egypt had been sealed at that point and we know a significant proportion of the Ancient population had either died or ascended several thousand years before"

Weir nodded, frowning, "so far this is the first real indicator we had that the Ancients were still around as late as five thousand years ago"

Enerina shuddered, the Goa'uld memories instinctively triggering a fear reaction within her as she realized exactly what would have happened if the Ancients had come across her when she was still making like a Goa'uld and prospective System Lord, "How do we know the Ancients are not still around?"

"We don't" Sheppard commented, "well, not for definite"

Aiden spoke up, "according to the Minbari, the Ancients left at the end of the war in their, and get this, _floating city" _

Enerina frowned, they obviously felt that was especially significant somehow but she couldn't… her breathe caught with a hitch, _"Atlantis?" _

"It appears so" Weir commented.

"It gets better" Sheppard took up the conversation, "see, they left an address for where they were going, a gate address"

"Can we go there?"

Weirs eyes lit up, "a city of the Ancients, a chance to possibly meet the gate builders themselves, to look over their technology…"

"Theres a problem, see most people specify either a six figure address leaving you to add the point of origin for where you are, or a seven figure address. The ancients specified a seven figure address but the seventh figure is not a local point of origin, in fact the world it refers to is on the other side of the galaxy in Cylon space"

Enerina's breath hitched again, "an _eight figure address?" _

Weir smiled, excitement filling her expression, "apparently so"

Enerina sat back down in her throne with a whoosh, "from now on, all records are to be sealed, maximum security. Find out everything you can from the Minbari but be polite, if we can persuade them to become allies they could be invaluable"

She frowned, "and find out what makes them think Anubis will be a threat again"


	7. Six

10: Dawning Alliance  
by Chaoseternus

When Enerina is sent to investigate why every gate in an area of space will not establish a wormhole, she finds something totally unexpected...

Six

Enerina shot awake with a start, hand already raising defensively, the hand device glowing as energy was channelled through it as her door slid open unannounced.

"My Lady"

"Enerist" Enerina saw the worried frown on her first primes face, and refrained carefully from asking her why she had interrupted her whilst she was resting, something her hosts empathic abilities forced her to do far more often then a normal Goa'uld would.

"The hyper barrier, it is shrinking"

"What?" Enerina asked startled, "how? Why?"

Enerist frowned; she hated to give her God an incomplete report but…

"I only noticed it because I was away from command, it shrinks so slowly that anyone watching would miss it but it has shrunk by at least a twelve kilometres width on this side alone since we arrived and a check of the sensor logs shows the decrease in size is increasingly exponentially.

It's estimated the barrier will be gone within three days"

It was, Enerina thought as she strode into her command centre, unusual to find so many of the Tau'ri members of her crew awake and working at this time of the day but with a discovery this significant they wouldn't wait till 'daytime' to investigate.

Indeed, she frowned; seeing an unfamiliar figure standing amongst the humans and Jaffa, it appeared even the Minbari had heard and couldn't resist seeing for themselves. They should have warned her first before bringing an unknown aboard her ship though; she would have to have words about _that. _

"Report!" she snapped, not bothering to mask her irritation.

"sensors have began to penetrate the barrier Milady" De'elc answered, "not only does the barrier appear to be shrinking but it is dissipating too and rapidly, we should be able to cross it at hyper in just 20 hours but not without damage"

"It explains the prophecy" the strange female said, walking across to her, "the Vorlons would have known when the barrier was to disappear, after all they most likely created it"

Enerina frowned, "I was told it was natural"

"Do not mistake naturally powered, natural maintained for natural origin. I am Delenn, are you their leader?"

Enerina nodded, recognising the name of their liaison with the Minbari, "I am Enerina, and I command this ship and the Jaffa aboard her. The humans are allies and under my command only whilst placed under my authority"

"Does your race fight the shadows too?"

Enerina laughed, "My race fights the shadows? The shadows _are _ my race, in a manner of speaking"

Delenn shivered, but steeped forward cautiously, "what do you mean?"

"Anubis" Enerina noted Delenn's wince, "is an Ancient who ascended whilst host to a Goa'uld, helped by a hopefully lost technology.

I am a Goa'uld, we are a race of parasites that for the most part, are egomaniacs, megalomaniacs, have a God Complex bigger than most Gas Giants and have the total inability to believe we could ever be wrong.

There are generally two types of us, for the most part we believe everything is inferior to us and is therefore cattle to be used, killed or tortured at will. The second type, the so called 'Tok'ra' have a use any means mentality in order to achieve their goals but claim to have morals and respect the individuals rights"

Delenn frowned, disturbed, "and you, which category do you fall under?"

Enerina just shrugged, "I am me, I am unique"

"And how many 'unique' shadows are there?"

Enerina frowned, "there are just three who might be considered unique. Me, Anubis as he is an ascendant and Maktenos who is driven by some insane force… He cares for his people but he is driven to destroy anyone that might oppose him, the Goa'uld are sociopathic yes but Maktenos, he is _insane" _

Delenn shivered, she could see the truth in the shadows words but his was a conversation she had never dreamed of having, she had never dreamed of a productive conversation with a willing, helpful shadow.

Enerina shrugged her dark thoughts off, and turned to face Delenn again, "the question of the hour is, what makes you so sure the shadow, Anubis will chose now to return, yes the barrier is dissipating but Anubis is weakened, being driven out by Maktenos, why would he move here?"

"because" Delenn hesitated, noting quickly how everyone had stopped any pretence of work and was now listening _very _closely, "because he left… certain things behind, things that could change the course of his war with you and Maktenos.

The Vorlons were specific about this, he was forced to abandon an entire fleet when he left but it was hidden so that even they could not find it"

Enerina's eyes widened slowly as Delenn spoke, fear slowly etching into her expression. An entire fleet, Anubis would certainly return for that, especially now he was being defeated.

"Exactly _how _ many ships are we talking about?"

"Unknown, they weren't specific but…" Delenn trailed off, but Enerina knew what she meant;

"It's a lot, isn't it?"

Delenn nodded.

**Please leave a review!  
**


	8. Seven

10: Dawning Alliance  
by Chaoseternus

Estrecca:Katana fleet - Theres a nod to SW in here, I doubt youll have trouble spotting it...  
As far as Eraths go, _"There can be only one!"_ /swish! head falls to ground.../ Oh wait, wrong show ;-) Im sure you get the idea anyway.  
the stargates would be blocked by the hypre barrier IF the Ancients hadnt walked off with them at the end of the last war. explanation for that later  
shadows: the cloaked crab types... well, Ill come to those, dont want to spoiler...  
Lorien: My B5 knowledge mainly comes from the B5 movies i have seen, i have NOT seen the bulk of the episodes... therefore Lorien is unlikely to appear as i have litle idea as to who/what he is

greyangle: not quite... you wont be seeing any anime for instance (Pet hate) and Star Wars is watched by the SGC....

johnnyg: valen: havent decided on that one yet

rankokun alpha: heh, not what i had in mind....

Thanks to all of you who have reviewed, its apprecaited.

When Enerina is sent to investigate why every gate in an area of space will not establish a wormhole, she finds something totally unexpected...

**Seven**

The _Al-kesh _flicked swiftly out of the launch bays of the _Ha'tak, _its pilot almost frantically turning the craft and maxing the sub-light engines as the vessel raced towards the slowly weakening hyper barrier.

The craft _lurched _ practically spinning in space as it hit the barrier but the Jaffa pilot surged the engines, forcing the Goa'uld bomber forward despite the shock of the impact.

Racing with desperate speed towards the nearest StarGate, a GDO transmitter held on a thin gold chain around his neck.

"Unscheduled off world activation!" General Carter groaned, rising from his seat with a weary sigh, wishing that just for once he would hear the magical words, "Scheduled Off world activation"

Of course, it never happened... well, Carter admitted to himself at Selmacs wry comment, it _did _ happen but that in itself was a sign of trouble. The last three times a team had come through on time they had had to deal with potential foothold situations.

"Recieveing GDO signal!" the tech sergeant looked up startled, "its Enerina's code sir"

Carter grimaced, stepping up to the console, he didn't ned al his combined years of experience as an Air Force General and as a member of the pretty much defunct Tok'ra to know what was coming now.

Trouble.

When an ally contacted you out of the blue whilst on a mission that would supposedly keep her out of contact for months, well there was rarely any other explanation, and quite frankly, 'finished ahead of schedule' didn't happen, not for the SGC and not for the RSS.

"Open the Iris"

Carters eyebrows rose as a Jaffa frantically charged through the gate, narrowly missing the swiftly opening Iris. Carter frowned, he had seen this Jaffa before and he did wear the standard pure white cloth robe generally used by Enerina's forces but...

"I bring tidings and bad news from Enerina"

The Jaffa shouted and Carter rolled his eyes, his misgivings gone in an instant, scratch it, he was one of Enerina's. If he were hostile, he would be the bad news, not just bringing it.

Carter ignored Selmac's comment about him becoming deeply cynical. He wasn't cynical, he was right far too often to be cynical. Selmac had no answer to that.

"My Lord, the Katana fleet! We must find it!"

Carter could have raised an eyebrow at that, commented that the SGCs nickname for a legendary lost fleet was appropriate to the situation and where had he learnt it anyway. He could have commented that there was no proof that the fleet even existed, or if it did, why hadn't it been found before.

He could have asked all those things and more but he didn't. Maybe he was getting cynical Carter admitted inwardly, as he bypassed all those questions and went straight to, "Where is it and who is looking for it?"

Selmac just commented that he had become far to used to life at the SGC and maybe it was time for a holiday, Carter mentally snorted and reminded Selmac that five times he had attempted to go on holiday and each time he had been recalled.

Once again, Selmac found herself without an answer.

"Anubis My Lord!" Carter groaned, Anubis was supposedly getting his arse kicked by Maktenos but if he could find another fleet to bolster his forces...

"The ships, they are of the Ancients!"

Carters mind tried to decamp.

Anubis was bad enough with Goa'uld ships enhanced by what ancient technologies he could bring into usage but with a fleet created by the Ancients?

"Are you sure the ships are of the Ancients?"

"According to the Minbari, they were left behind by Anubis when the last of the Ancients left their territory before themselves fleeing the Galaxy in Atlantis, a hyper barrier formed which prevented Anubis from going back for his fleet but the barrier is weakening, and Anubis would be stupid not to check it periodically.

It's only a matter of time before he realises that the barrier is down and returns for his ships!"

"Woah! Hold on a minute, Minbari? Hyper barrier?" Carter grimaced, gesturing towards the stairs, "I think we'd better take this to the briefing room, and start from the beginning..."


	9. Eight

10: Dawning Alliance  
by Chaoseternus

When Enerina is sent to investigate why every gate in an area of space will not establish a wormhole, she finds something totally unexpected...

Eight 

Across the gulf of space, two fleets charged, neither one knowing of the other but both with the same destination in mind.

The Hyper Barrier.

Fleet One was Tau'ri, a hastily assembled reinforcement group for the _Del Shakka Mel _ and consisted of the _Prometheus _, _General Hammond _, _Stingray _, and the _Ha'taks __Valour's Vengeance _and _ Valour's Sword. _

The Second Fleet was led by Anubis himself, Four _Ha'taks, _one _Cheops _ and five Loyalist _Basestars, _all that could be spared of his once mighty, powerful fleet.

They weren't the only Fleets at large that day, across the other side of the Hyper Barrier, the Minbari gathered forces. With confirmation of the threat posed by the Shadows', the Dark Ascendants Anubis and Iblis, the Warrior Caste sent Task Force after Task Force to scour space looking for the lost fleet whilst at home the Worker Caste gasped with awe and a little glee as their shipyards were swamped under orders for new warships, even entire new fleets.

It wasn't long before others noticed; indeed in a surprise move the wily Narn took quick advantage of the situation, offering the services of many of their ships and several of their shipyards in exchange for technology and a mutual defence pact.

The Minbari, no longer feeling secure behind the barrier of technological superiority which had been shown lacking by the Tau'ri quickly agreed, giving several designs for systems older than those they currently used aboard their ships but still much in advance of what the Narn had to cement the deal.

The Narn were gleeful and celebrated, sending mass orders to their captured Centauri shipyards. The Centauri themselves were not impressed but unwilling to object, not at any race that managed to get anything other than a Peace' Treaty with the enigmatic Minbari.

But the Centauri were fearful, their Empire may not cover the same volume of space as it did during its heyday but it was still pretty large and much of it bordered Minbari territory

And the Minbari had just gone to full military alert without warning or even the slightest indication of why, mobilizing almost their entire population to fight or produce Military goods.

And they had entered into an Alliance with a race that had every reason to hate the Centauri.

Fearing the alliance was for some reason aimed at them, or that the Narn would take advantage of their Alliance with the Minbari to destroy their old enemy, the Centauri brought their Military forces to Alert status and began placing their own mass orders with their shipyards.

It was a cascade reaction, that filtered down at last to the Shattered Remnants of the League Of Non-Aligned Worlds, very aware of their own weakness since the war against the Dilgar in which nine tenths of their Military forces were destroyed before they were able to deliver a crippling blow to the Dilgar, forcing them back to their home system momentarily to rebuild during which time the gate in the Dilgar system had an accident'.

Their own efforts to rebuild their shattered fleets were quickly redoubled; they knew all too well that if anyone had expansionist ideas, they were for the moment, the easiest target.

Of the rumoured Dark races that served the Shadows, there was no sign.

The Powder Keg began slowly smouldering.


	10. Nine

10: Dawning Alliance  
by Chaoseternus

When Enerina is sent to investigate why every gate in an area of space will not establish a wormhole, she finds something totally unexpected...

Nine 

Despite Centauri belief to the contrary, the Narn had no intention of abusing their Alliance in any way, they were gaining far too much from the Alliance in the form of technologies and the like for them to consider abuse.

The Narn did however have very firm plans concerning when the Mutual Defence Pact ended however, and they would certainly have worried the Centauri.

But as fleet after fleet criss-crossed space, the powder keg slowly began to dim. There was no attacks, no hostile actions only the puzzling search carried out with great anxiousness by the Minbari and their allies. Rumours began to circulate that much of the Grey Council had been lost when their transport had an accident and they were desperate to find them, the Minbari encouraged this.

Best the other races thought they were looking for their leading citizens, not a full fleet of advanced warships, something any self-respecting race would easily go to war over.

But inevitably, word got out.

The Brakira Krona, a member race of the League of Non-aligned Worlds was first to discover the truth, their expertise at communications technologies allowing them to capture and then decrypt a Narn Interfleet communication.

Knowing their own current state of military ill preparedness, the Brakira Krona informed the other races of the League, and then suggested the best way to get their fleets up to strength in a hurry was to find the missing fleet first, and capture it.

What remained of the League Fleets mobilized quickly, and deployed on active search and seizure missions.

The Centauri couldn't believe their luck, they had already been looking at the greatly weakened League with covetous eyes and it seemed the Narn had no intention of attacking What better time to indulge in some expansion then whilst the bulk of the League fleets were away?

The smouldering fire that was space beyond the hyperbarrier began to glow, brightly.

The Centauri Fleets, already at full Alert moved swiftly and decisively into League space, their numbers quickly overwhelming the few picket ships left to defend the worlds of the League Members. The League fell, crushed under the Centauri boots whilst their fleets returned from their search, angry and vengeful.

It wasn't long before the Victorious Centauri spotted the League Fleet that was gathering outside of their newly acquired territories, and more ships were quickly deployed from older Centauri territories as the Centauri gathered a matching fleet, to put down the few survivors of the League Navies once and for all.

But, following a suggestion from the Vree, Ambassadors had been sent to the Narn, a race that had very reason to hate the Centauri, to request an Alliance against the Centauri.

The Narn weren't eager, it might compromise their rather beneficial alliance with the Minbari but they allowed the League Ambassadors to say their piece, with Minbari observers watching.

Whilst negotiations were under way, they moved several ships straight off the assembly lines towards the Narn/Centauri border, in case the Centauri attempted to disrupt the talks.

The Centauri Officer controlling the Centauri fleets deployed on the border region was young and inexperienced. He had risen to his position of quite some power more through political manoeuvring then actual military ability. Indeed, the experienced Officers sent to lead the invasion of League space had been more then happy to leave him behind, considering him an incompetent, somebody they didn't want watching their backs in combat.

They didn't know that he would use his connections to acquire such a position whilst they were gone, if they had, they might have made arrangements.

An accident perhaps.

This young, inexperienced officer had been told by intelligence sources that the League Navies had sent representatives to the Narn to negotiate a Narn entry into the war, and he saw Narn forces reinforcing the border regions. Panicked, he assumed the worst and actually did what would have been the right thing IF the Narn were gathering for an attack.

He launched a pre-emptive strike, aiming to disrupt the Narn build up to get him time for reinforcements to arrive.

The strike was successful, wiping out the forty green ships before they could scatter to their positions in the rear of the border defences, as well as thirty other Narn ships losing only five of his own ships in the process.

The Minbari knew no strike had been ordered against the Centauri by the Narn, indeed, they had seen all too clearly how frustrated the League Ambassadors in exile were getting because of their lack of success.

Across Centauri space, effigies of a certain young nameless commander were burnt as the Minbari declared war on the Centauri Republic, joining the Narn in their defacto state of war.

The Centauri Navy now found itself with the hopeless task of policing their newly captured territories, defending against hit and run attacks from the building League fleet on the new border regions whilst still maintaining a fleet sufficient to wage war against the Narn and the Minbari.

The arrival of an unknown pyramid shaped vessel and an offer of alliance came at the right time for the Centauri and they didn't look the gift horse too close in the mouth.

Pity for them, for the Goa'uld Morden served Anubis.

The powder keg was burning, hotly brightly.

Just waiting to explode.

My Lord Morden face showed an evil smirk as he gazed through the Vo'cume at his Master, I may be able to disrupt the Tau'ri's alliance with the races in this area of space

_Speak _

The Narn and the Minbari are both momentarily distracted by war with another race, the Centauri but this distraction is not likely to last long, the Centauri are outnumbered and outmatched. Unless the Centauri were to gain an unexpected ally Morden trailed off, his smirk carefully hidden as he gazed upon the source of his power, Anubis.

_You wish to ally us with these Centauri? _

Morden hesitated, then plunged in, The more of a threat the Centauri are, the more resources the Minbari and Narn will divert from the search. If done properly, the Tau'ri may be forced to divert ships too, to help defend their allies against us. If I might have the service of maybe three more ships?

He didn't honestly believe he would get three, it would divert too many ships from his master's search but however many he asked for; he knew he would get less. Best ask for more then he wanted.

_You may have them _

Morden blinked, his mind elsewhere as he thanked his master.

Something was up.

His master was sending all three ships he had asked for; he had expected only one, two at most. Either Anubis felt he could carry out the search with just seven ships, possible if he kept the basestars thanks to the independent jump capability the Cylons fighters had or he now had more ships at his disposal.

If Anubis now had more ships at his disposal, then he needed to know about it and fast.

Had Anubis found the missing fleet already?


	11. Ten

10: Dawning Alliance  
by Chaoseternus

When Enerina is sent to investigate why every gate in an area of space will not establish a wormhole, she finds something totally unexpected...

Thanks as always to everyone who reviewed.  
greyangle: no Doctor Who likely to appear in this verse

Ten

The Minbari were the first to find out that the Centauri had new allies, and they found out the _hard _ way.

A small fleet, some ten _Sharlin's _ was the first Minbari probe into Centauri space. They found the four _Ha'taks _ under Mordens command instead. All four, Mordens original _Ha'tak _ plus the requested reinforcements were fully upgraded with the best technologies Anubis had available.

They outmatched the Tau'ri vessels and then some, and the Minbari vessels, for the most part, were even less advanced.

The result was an almost inevitable defeat of the Minbari, especially when the _Ha'taks _ used the surprise advantage supplied by their cloaks to launch the first attack.

Six _Sharlin's _ were torn apart in the initial barrage, almost no weapons fire being aimed at the _Ha'taks _, the surprise was that total. But the Minbari rallied, and quickly realising the extent to which the _Ha'taks _ were shielded, began preparations for pinpoint jumps, aiming for the energetic disruption of the jump vortex to tear through the Goa'uld vessels.

A seventh _Sharlin _ died before it could jump and an eighth span off, uncontrolled and crippled but the final two jumped, and arrived spot on target.

The shields on the _Ha'taks _ were the latest model, improved beyond those used by Tanith during his assault all those years ago on New Tollana, they were able to withstand the energies of the vortex for a full second and a half, bending the hyperspace disruption waves around the shield perimeter of the two effected _Ha'taks _.

But, inevitably the shields failed, literally just as the vortex closed.

Finding themselves unshielded, the two _Ha'taks _attempted to retreat behind their fully operational comrades under a blanket of fire. The Minbari weapons fired with a vengeance, firing at an incredible rate and with unexpected power, as if the spirit of the ships themselves was aiding them, fighting for its own continued existence.

The fire caught an unshielded _Ha'tak, _tearing the armour of the hull to shreds in seconds but the ninth _Sharlin _ paid the price. Realising they were unsupported and facing technologically superior enemy, the tenth _Sharlin _ retreated into hyperspace, heading swiftly back towards alliance territory.

It wasn't long before word reached the ears of Enerina, the Goa'uld Commander of the Tau'ri taskforce assigned to the search. Cursing the necessity, Enerina was quick to redeploy the USS _Prometheus _ and the USS _Stingray _ to head up an Alliance Fleet tasked specifically with destroying the Anubis Fleet tasked to assist the Centauri.

They were joined by fifteen _Sharlin _War Cruisers two _Tinashi _ War Frigates as well as Narn warships, two _G'quan _heavy Cruisers and five _Th'nor _ Cruisers.

Enerina also carefully ordered her own _Ha'taks _to maintain IFF's and contact procedures at all time, she didn't want a friendly fire incident.

It took five weeks for the taskforce to find the Goa'uld ships, five weeks in which the Centauri seized three Narn colonies and were rebuffed violently from a fourth. Five weeks in which the Minbari began a massive hit and run campaign, covering the entire frontline of the war, causing heavy disruption behind Centauri lines and forcing the Centauri Navy redeploy once more, five weeks in which the scattered remnants of the League Navy finally assembled themselves all together, and went on the offensive, their first unified move to retake a Vree Colony, one of the few with an operational shipyard.

With the eight hundred ships that was all that survived of the Leagues Navies in orbit over this one world, the Centauri dared not attack either, their own Navy was too scattered, too thinly spread to be able to gather up enough ships to threaten that mass, even if many were second rate even by Centauri standards.

They knew that it might prove to be a fatal mistake, the League Navy was using the shipyard top replenish and repair but they didn't have much of a choice.

Morden chose then to ask them what they wanted, the Centauri were all too happy to answer. The next day, Morden ordered his fleet to League Space, the day after Taskforce Omega followed, thanking an on-the-ball Minbari Spy planted within the Centauri equivalent to the Admiralty.

Of all the ships headed towards the sole system under League control, the _Dauntless _ II class USS _Stingray _was unquestionable the fastest. Racing ahead of the taskforce, they arrived at the Vree Shipyard a mere three hours before Morden was anticipated to arrive.

Three hours warning, three hours for the entire League Navy to prepare for battle.

It was more than enough time.


	12. Eleven

10: Dawning Alliance  
by Chaoseternus

When Enerina is sent to investigate why every gate in an area of space will not establish a wormhole, she finds something totally unexpected...

Eleven 

When Morden arrived in system, he found to his distinct discomfort and surprise a League Navy that was certainly waiting for him.

That was to put it mildly, not a part of his plans.

Not with only three _Ha'taks _and a relatively small group of Centauri warships at his disposal, his fourth _Ha'tak _being left behind whilst extensive repairs were completed. But, he decided, his plan was still sound, approach the League Shipyard under cloak and kill it, quickly decisively. Then recloak, moving to the outer boundary of the League Navy, taking any targets of opportunity out along the way, signal for the Centauri vessels to drop out of Hyper and join them and introduce the vastly inferior League warships to a frontal assault.

The fact that the League was clearly anticipating an attack just made the timing a little tighter; they would react a lot faster.

Deciding to keep to his original plan, Morden ordered his three _Ha'taks _to advance under cloak. Unfortunately for him his arrival had already been noticed by a stealthed warship and his plan anticipated.

Diving carefully through the League vessels, all of which had been briefed not to react to the ship that flashed past their viewports but not their sensors, Captain Dodge USN brought the _Stingray _ to a stop, hovering protectively above the Vree Shipyard, weapons loaded and ready for the Goa'uld to arrive.

Morden didn't know a _Dauntless _ II was in the area, he didn't know he had stealthed warships to worry about. If he did, he might not have fallen into the ambush so completely.

The three _Ha'taks _decloaked well within range of the Vree shipyard and promptly opened fire and just as promptly, found themselves under fire as the five dead' warships clustered around the station, brought reactors online and began engaging the Goa'uld warships joined swiftly by a barrage from behind the Goa'uld vessels, a distinctly Tau'ri barrage of Gauss rifle fire and torpedoes from a ship the _Ha'taks _ sensors couldn't lock onto.

Noting how swiftly the closest League warships had turned and started charging towards their position, Morden decided discretion was the better part of valour and cloaked, hoping to escape to safety.

But cloaking meant he had to lower the shields and impacts rained across the vessels armour before the League vessels lost their weapons lock. Dodge had no compunctions about blind fire, and ordered the gauss rifles to continue firing so long as they continued to hit something. He was rewarded as atmosphere explosively vented out of one _Ha'taks _ hull, giving a clear position for the _Stingrays _ target.

Their cloak failing as impact after impact compromised the hull, the Jaffa dropped cloak and attempted to raise shields but failed to get the shields up in time. Tau'ri and League weapons fire rained down on the _Ha'tak, _destroying the shield generators before they could fully power up. The hull armour was destroyed, melted or blown off, layer by layer.

The _Ha'tak _ died, swiftly and quietly, al power failing as atmosphere blew out all over the hull, bodies and debris tumbling into space from the dead warship.

One down.

A trail of destroyed ships was the only clue to the course taken by the other two _Ha'taks, _as the two ships decloaked either side of their target, raining fire down on it then recloaking, moving one ship further to their rendezvous on the edge of the system.

It was a trail even a child could follow, a fact that had been missed by Morden in his typically Goa'uld arrogance. The League Navy were quick to redeploy accordingly, joined by the darting yet hidden shape of the _Stingray. _

When the Centauri warships responded to Mordens command and dropped into normal space, they found themselves staring down a fleet that had them outnumbered two to one. That, considering the number of second rate or under maintained warships among the League fleet made the odds about even.

They hadn't been expecting even odds, and they didn't know about the _Stingray, _that one ship shifted the odds, unbeknownst to the Centauri.

Forming their ships into a solid wedge, with the two _Ha'taks _ at the point, the Centauri fleet charged, attempting to forcefully divide the League fleet then turn and smash the one half before the other could regroup.

They almost succeeded, even with _Stingray _ dropping all stealth and going to full combat mode right in the centre of the Centauri formation, tearing capital ship after capital ship to shreds. Indeed, despite the disruption caused by _Stingrays _ appearance, they had successfully cut the league fleet in half and had now concentrated all their fire on one half, tearing through the fleet whilst the _Ha'taks _watched their rear and the frantically reassembling League Navy units that had been forcefully split off from the main body.

But _Prometheus _ arrived, moving like the Cruiser she was she tore into the Centauri lines, breaking _Stingray _ out and shredding ships as fast as her targeting computers could acquire a shooting solution.

The two _Ha'taks _were forced to redeploy to deal with her and _Stingray, _leaving the Centauri rear uncovered. The second half of the League navy, now truly the bulk of the League Forces wasn't missing an opportunity like that and despite their unorganised ranks, they charged straight into the Centauri rear.

The Centauri were now in trouble, caught between two groups of hostile ships but the Centauri Commander made the sensible decision and ordered his ships to break through the weaker League fleet to their front and then regroup.

Unorganised and broken, the League warships at the Centauri front scattered, thinking only of personal survival and not the battle. Their disorganisation made it easy for the Centauri to kill almost a hundred of the League ships without opposition, but then the Minbari arrived, their engines straining as they dived at maximum speed through the scattered League vessels straight at the Centauri right flank.

As the Centauri shifted to meet this new threat, the Narn also arrived at their front and with League Forces attacking their rear, Minbari at their flanks, Narn moving to engage and their ally desperately trying to break off and disengage, the Centauri decided to cal it a day and jumped, heading straight towards Centauri space.

Morden and his two ships were in real trouble, the League was deliberately keeping ships so close to the _Ha'taks _ shields that if Morden opened fire on them, his own ships could be damaged and it prevented him from jumping. It was obvious they were deliberately keeping him here at great risk for the heavy hitters to come and finish him off and Morden really didn't like that.

He couldn't cloak either, too many ships already had him targeted, they would tear through the _Ha'taks _ hull armour in seconds, he had no doubt of that. It didn't help that his allies had just signalled him that they were calling it a day. He couldn't blame the, he would have been gone long before this but it made his situation that much worse.

He couldn't even manoeuvre, his shields were getting paper thin and if he moved, the League warships would impact on his shields, tearing them down. He really hoped they didn't figure that little factoid out.

If he knew the New arrivals were a task force with specific orders to destroy him and his forces, he would have been a lot more worried. In desperation, he ordered power diverted from weapons, life support, gravity; every system energy could be begged from in fact and diverted to shields. He would force his way through.

He never got the chance, he watched as, if on some prearranged signal, all the League warships dived away from his other _Ha'tak, _giving the Tau'ri warships a clear line of fire. The heavily damaged warship died quickly.

Then the league warships dived away from his _Ha'tak _ and seeing the forces that were preparing to deal the death blow to his ship, Morden bowed his head then tapped swiftly at the Command Console.

For the God Anubis! was the last thing heard from the _Ha'tak, _before her reactor went critical, the deliberately triggered explosion tearing through League and Minbari warships like a hot knife through butter.


	13. Twelve

10: Dawning Alliance  
by Chaoseternus

Thank you to: greyangle, rankukon alpha for reviewing, greyangle, hope this answers your questions

When Enerina is sent to investigate why every gate in an area of space will not establish a wormhole, she finds something totally unexpected...

Twelve 

Morden, if he still lived, would have been somewhat annoyed that Anubis hadn't found his missing fleet of Shadow warships; it would have meant it would have had to wait longer for a truly powerful warship to command.

But Morden was dead; his soul enjoying the delights of Glorificus's old hell dimension, therefore he never learned that in the years after he was tossed out of the area, a group of Anubis's old allies had prospered.

And prepared.

Now with the return of Anubis, they had returned to the side of their master with their fruits of their years of isolation, years of industry, years of research, and years of planning.

Unbeknownst to the Tau'ri, the Drakh were going to war.

---

"New Contact!"

Enerina glanced up from the laptop and her game of solitaire with a frown, "any Id?"

"No sir, matches no known wait, I'm picking up fighter launches! Egerist frowned, incoming transmission"

_"In the name of Anubis, prepare to die" _

"Red Alert!" Enerina barked, tapping swiftly at her laptop, pulling the ships status displays back up, "prepare all fighters for launch! Target main batteries and open fire!"

Her _Ha'tak _began shuddering lightly as volley after volley flashed across space, swiftly impacting on the unresponsive and as yet unidentified Carrier as her ship charged once more to the offence. Then, the _Ha'tak _lurched and Enerina gazed with open mouthed shock as the shield strength readout shifted instantly from Green, 100 to yellow, 50.

That was just one hit, from the unidentified fighters.

Divert power to the shields, shift the main batteries to those fighters and get those damn Black Nights out of my bays and into the fight! she barked, a little knot of fear starting to develop as the ship lurched once more, the shields dropping into the red.

Advanced fighters, attacking in the name of Anubis. Had he found the fleet? Or worse, advanced allies?

The ship lurched, and strident alarms filled the room as the shields gave way after only three hits. Aghast and dismayed, Enerina cursed, her agile mind frantically searching for some way out of this nightmare.

Then her display shifted, twelve new green icons appearing one after another as the Tau'ri 5 th StarFighter Wing, the Black Knights' made their way swiftly out of the _Del Shakka Mel's _ launch bays.

Then swiftly, one after another the Icons blinked out, and Enerina's eyes watered at the deaths of so many she knew and was proud to call friend. The tenth fighter blinked out, joined by the fifteenth hostile as a pilot killed a hostile fighter the only way he could with his crippled fighter.

A Fox-Four, deliberate collision.

But it still left 25 hostile fighters, plus the carrier which so far had shown no signs whatsoever of having weapons of its own to deal with and though the squadron had bought time enough for the _Del's _shields to be brought online, it was only at 33.

A tear left Enerina's eyes as the last two icons representing her fighters blinked out. Effectively, the 5 th SFW was gone, destroyed by an unknown attacker claiming allegiance to Anubis.

And unless the fleet they were here to meet arrived soon, they would be next.

Five new fighter icons arrived on her screen, with the blinking Red R that indicated a reserve pilot and fighter, the extras every squadron kept available spare so that the loss of a single fighter or pilot didn't cripple squadron. Three of the fighters were already showing blinking patches of yellow, light damage before they even engaged the unknown fighters.

Enerina swiftly said a prayer to any true deity that might be listening for their souls and for those of her crew as she tapped up a priority one distress signal, sending it to the communications relays, hoping they hadn't been too badly damaged to transmit.

---

The sudden, shocking blaring of the Red Alerts sirens made Captain Dodge, USN jerk forward in his seat, cursing as his coffee sloshed over the rim of his cup and into his lap.

"Dammit, _report! _" he barked.

"Sir, computer triggered an automatic red alert upon receipt of a distress signal from the _Del Shakka Mel, _ the signal appears to have been cut off but it was tagged with final disaster, heavy attack"

Dodge's eyes widened with shock, then anger.

"What's our ETA?"

"One minute sir"

"Make all tubes ready in all respects including opening the outer doors, load gauss rifles and bounce the signal to all allied ships in the area" Dodge barked, his coffee forgotten, his mind only on an ally and friend who needed his help.

"45 seconds"

He glanced at his XO and she nodded, slapping the Intercom switch, her voice carrying across the Type II _Dauntless _ class ship, the _Stingray, _"All hands, the _Del Shakka Mel _has signalled a mayday and that they are under attack, we are moving to assist. Give us your best and put your balls to the walls boys!"


	14. Thirteen

10: Dawning Alliance  
by Chaoseternus

When Enerina is sent to investigate why every gate in an area of space will not establish a wormhole, she finds something totally unexpected...

Thirteen 

Dodge grinned, a feral look that many would not have recognised on the old submariners face as the _Stingray _ jumped out of hyper, perfectly bouncing the unidentified fighters.

Before the fighters even reacted, they began dieing, the pulse laser batteries firing constantly and devastatingly at the surprised fighters. But, they didn't break. Despite their losses, the fighters just turned and disengaged from the _Del, _to them she was no longer a threat. The _Stingray _ was.

It was then that, with some horror, Captain Dodge realised exactly how few casualties they had caused and how many dead _F-302's _ were showing on the ships sensors.

_Stingray _ rocked, her more powerful shields, based on Asgard technologies and boasted using other technologies seized by or granted to the Tau'ri over the years were far stronger than those of the _Del Shakka Mel, _capable of taking far more damage but still, they dropped.

_Shields at 80 _

Dodge resisted the urge to curse; a few of his crew weren't so restrained.

Divert power from the gauss batteries and the torpedo tubes to shields, these sharks are nimble enough for them to be any use anyways Dodge paused, and while you're at it, send a sit-rep and a request for support to the fleet and our allies

_Captain! _ the shout came simultaneously from two different officers and Dodge glanced straight at tactical, giving tacit permission to speak, they were in combat after all so tactical had priority, _lots of blips appearing, looks like support craft and they are all fleeing the Del wait, picking up instabilities in the Del's Naquadah reactors now sir _

Helm, move us away from the _Del, _but try and keep us between the hostiles and the evac

Dodge then glanced at engineering, waiting for her piece of bad news as the ship shook once more, _fire in main engineering _

 _Captain, shields are now at 35, and we've still got 13 fighters out there _

Swearing, Dodge ran across to tactical, the engineering, checking the status and tactical displays for himself. Then, he stopped and dived back to tactical. He glanced at a lone blip, one that so far had stayed out of the fight and smiled, tightly.

Helm, make flank speed to the mothership, tactical, make all tubes ready in all respects including opening the outer doors, lets see how hard they fight with a clipped wing, we're taking out their mothership people

_We don't have power to spare captain; it's already all used to shore up the shields _

Then use the manual launch procedure if you have too but I want that carrier dead!

The ship rocked once more and Dodge stiffened, this time it felt different, ominous.

_Shields down! _

The ship shook, the whole frame shuddering and groaning, a sound that reminded Dodge far too much of a submarine under far too much pressure. Only here, the idea was to keep the pressure in, not out.

For a split second, the lights flicked out, then flicked on dimmer as the whooping sound of the hull breech alarm filled the air.

_Torpedoes are ready captain, and we have range _

**Fire! **

The prow of the _Stingray _ glowed momentarily, the burning heat of the four _Sparrow _ missiles lighting up the hull as they leapt from the tubes.

Then, the engines flicked off, conserving their fuel for the terminal homing phase of their attack run. The Drakh fighter pilots weren't fools, they knew their only way home had come under fire and they charged forward, ignoring the _Stingray _ in their haste to destroy the missiles before they destroyed the Drakh carrier.

The Pilots after all, knew the carriers greatest weakness. It had no weapons of its own, relying on its fighters for all of its offensive needs and much of its defences. Indeed, the carrier itself only had a thick armoured hull and a relatively weak gravitic defence grid for its own protection.

But they had a problem, the Tau'ri were all to aware how vulnerable their missiles were to interception by fighters and in response had painted them black, making it much harder for the pilots to see the missiles whilst they were coasting, indeed, it forced the Drakh to check their sensors constantly just to confirm that there were missiles out there.

In their anxiousness to destroy the missiles, they didn't notice that they were being allowed to charge past the _Stingray _ at ranges that placed them lethally close to the _Dauntless _ class Heavy Destroyers Pulse Laser batteries.

They found out suddenly, abruptly.

Ten fighters died in mere seconds, leaving three frantically evading fighters trying to escape the wrath of Dodge, but they may have had weapons powerful enough to rapidly erode the vessels shields under their combined assault but they were not very manoeuvrable. In truth, their efforts to escape were truly an act of futility.

The Drakh carrier, seeing its fighter wing abruptly die sensibly decided to turn and flee, but the _Sparrows _ had just hit terminal homing range, their engines lighting up again.

Three detonated on the escaping carrier, blowing the thick armour plate into shreds, the sudden outpouring of atmosphere and pressure collapsing several bulkheads and crippling that sector of the hull.

The fourth sailed right through the debris, impacting directly on the carriers hyperdrives, releasing the massive energy build up triggered by the ships preparations to escape to safety.

The resulting shockwave threw _Stingray _ tumbling ten thousand kilometres from their last location, and triggered the _Del Shakka Mel's _ already critical reactors.


	15. Fourteen

10: Dawning Alliance  
by Chaoseternus

When Enerina is sent to investigate why every gate in an area of space will not establish a wormhole, she finds something totally unexpected...

Fourteen 

Abruptly, catastrophically, the _Del Shakka Mel _ died, a new sun momentarily appearing, supernova like that died in an instant, the glow vanishing as the shockwave flashed, unknowing and uncaring across space, scattering the few survivors of the _Del _ in their flimsy shuttles.

It was into this chaos that the vanguard of the Minbari fleet, a _Sharlin _ class war cruiser dropped, its weapons already hot and ready, its captain frankly scared at being ordered into a fight that had seen a mighty Tau'ri warship laid low.

But, the Drakh were gone, wiped out to the last by the _Del Shakka Mel, _the 5SFW and the _Stingray, _and it was one very relieved Minbari captain that ordered immediate rescue and salvage operations.

USS _General Hammond _ was the first Tau'ri warship on the scene and the first to leave, her engines screaming as the _Dauntless _ class Destroyer headed at flank speed for the nearest stargate beyond the slowly weakening hyperbarrier, her mission, to report to the Tau'ri the lose of an allied warship and the heavy damage received by the _Stingray. _

And of the apparent new allies for Anubis, this race the Minbari called Drakh.

-

_"Offworld activation!" _

General Carter rubbed his head, almost wishing for his Tok'ra days as he dropped the latest paperwork on the desk and headed once more for the control room.

They weren't expecting anyone back now, so this was unscheduled and unscheduled almost always meant trouble of one sort or another.

 _"Receiving GDO transmission..." _ the tech sergeant glanced at General Carter, more then a little startled, "its USS _General Hammond _ sir, they are requesting permission to send a briefer through"

"Granted, arrange a resupply for the _General Hammond _whilst they are at the gate, and as soon as the briefer clears customs, send them to my office"

Nodding at the sergeant's acknowledgement, Carter swiftly headed back to his office, his mind already cursing in tune with Selmac as they considered exactly what kind of chaos was occurring across the hyperbarrier that would have the _General Hammond _herself delivering the news herself, instead of leaving it for the scheduled run by one of the _F-302's _ deployed aboard the _Del Shakka Mel. _

Carter never even had an chance to sit down in his office before he was called to the sickbay, the first port of call for anyone arriving from offworld, to deal with the frantic XO of the _Hammond, _who insisted their news couldn't wait for the Doctors to finish their checkover.

Frankly, Carter was soon wishing he had waited, at least in the office he would have had a few aspirin handy to help deal with his developing headache, something not even Selmac seemed to be able to help with nowadays. But then, both of them were far out of their prime, no longer the young beings they once were.

"let me get this straight, the _Del _is gone, along with the 5 th SFW and the _Stingray, _a ship so new I'm sure she still has some of the yard crews aboard, is heavily damaged. Oh, and just to make my day complete, we know now Anubis has made contact with some of his old allies, allies with advanced fighters"

Carter shook his head at the officers sympathetic nod, 2great, its bad enough we've got reports from _Endeavour _ coming in that sound like something from a trekkies..." Carter trailed off, refusing to finish voicing that thought out aloud.

"We've got a real problem here, I cant see us being able to free up any reinforcements for you, every ship we had spare is being rerouted to deal with the Aschen, sons of a bitches managed to get a taskforce into a system that isn't one of ours, buts its still far to close for our liking, and the locals made an official request for assistance"

"We're down to just _General Hammond _, _Prometheus _ and two outdated _Ha'taks, _standard system lord ships not the upgraded vessels of Maktenos or Anubis, the local races maybe doing most of the work but if we are outclassed so are they, and they need our heavy hitting ability  
Its bad enough that they have become distracted by war with the Centauri but if they start felling they aren't getting enough support..."

"I know, I know, but ships aren't exactly in easy supply, especially not now..." Carter sighed, "they just finished the first layer of type one defence satellites around Edonia, they may be willing to release a ship or two from there now but I would have to have a word with Thompson and Peters at the RSS, they do have priority over fleet operations after all"

"Go, get some sleep and I'll send for you when in know some more"

-

The next day, _General Hammond _surged back towards Minbari space, her perishables restocked her ammo bunkers topped up and her entire computer core copied to the SGC over radio via the gate.

The day after, USS _Yorktown _left Edonia nebula, her orders to report home for resupply and briefing, then onto Minbari controlled space, joined by USS _Gettysburg _, until recently, part of the Sol system defence picket.

Behind them they rumours of a massive project, planned as a combined effort between the allied races, a place where the alliance could meet, to learn more about eachother, to grow closer, researching and living together, a place where a war could be controlled from.

A project, codenamed Babylon...


	16. Fifteen

10: Dawning Alliance  
by Chaoseternus

When Enerina is sent to investigate why every gate in an area of space will not establish a wormhole, she finds something totally unexpected...

Fifteen 

"Damn, they really got hit didn't they?"

"Yes well, at least we weren't aboard at the time"

"Ahh Rodney" Sheppard spat back, sarcastic as ever, "you're all heart"

"That's enough" Weir glanced back, her tone disapproving as she manipulated the controls on the Minbari grav sled they were using to ferry Medical Supplies and food to the survivors as they arrived at Minbar.

"Well, he started it"

Weir stopped, shooting a shocked look at Rodney, "he started it?"

"Yeah, way to go with the mature Doctor"

"Yeah like you can say anything about that Sheppard"

"Yeah, and how often have I said anything as infantile as 'he started it'"

"What, would you like me to start counting?2

Weir stopped again, a note of pure exasperation in her voice as she interrupted them, "Children please, we've got a job to do"

"Yes Ma'am"

"Listen, I don't see why I am needed here, I am a scientist, not a relief worker, I have studies which are being disrupted by this"

Weir shot Rodney a thousand watt glare as Sheppard replied, "you know Rodney, sometimes you can be a real arsehole"

"Excuse me"

"Delenn, long time no see"

"Apologies for that, but the Grey have many demands upon their time"

"We are aware of that, and I am sure Sheppard wasn't trying to condemn you for that"

Sheppard nodded at Weir's words agreeing, "'long time no see' is just used as a human greeting to a friend you haven't seen in a while"

"A friend?" Delenn looked slightly pleased, but shrugged it off, "it's not important, the Alliance Council has called an emergency meeting, you are required to be there"

Weir was already looking around for someone to foist her load of to, "lieutenant take this to the Docs in C-15 okay?"

"And find somebody to take these two as well" Rodney commented, abandoning his load.

Sheppard turned to Delenn, "we'll just be a moment, but you were wrong about one thing"

"Really?"

Sheppard grinned slightly, ignoring Weirs glare, "friends are never not important'"

Weirs glare turned to a grudging smile.

"Sheppard, stop flirting with Delenn, our loads have gone, we have a meeting to get too"

"Rodney!" the shout came from both Weir and Sheppard, but it was Sheppard who disgustedly continued, "are you always this self centred and objectionable?"

"Well, yes of course"

"Rodney" Weirs tone conveyed a dark warning.

"Yes?"

"Zip it"

"Why, I..."

"Not another word"

Delenn just listened, slightly bemused as the Tau'ri tried the entire way to the meeting to get Rodney to shut up.

-

"Well, I am sure the _General Hammond _ would have passed on word to Earth, but I really don't see how we could afford such a construction not at this point in time"

"Ah, but you see here's the thing, we have been discussing it and we have decided that you don't build it, you tell us what to build, how to build it and we build it for you, its simple"

"Okay" Sheppard turned his full attention to the Narn Ambassador, "what's the catch?"

"He's already told us" Weir's tone was wary, "tell us how to build it?"

"They want technology" Rodney finished off.

"For you, it is perfect. You get a station, a foothold in our space from which to gather resources, research technologies and whatever you need to do a safe distance from the main lines of the war and we will put our full effort into making it the best station we can construct"

"But to do that, you would need access to our technology"

"Exactly" G'kar replied, his tone jovial, and laced with a certain amount of pride at being invited to speak for the whole Alliance .

Weir rubbed her forehead, she could definitely feel a headache coming on, "I may have some power to speak for the Tau'ri, but not to this level. This goes upstairs, it has too"

Delenn nodded, speaking for the first time since the meeting began, "understandable, but know this. We may be able to outmanoeuvre the Drakh but we cannot outgun them, we need a bigger edge or our people will die and not just in the thousands as they are now, but in the millions. Your technology could be that edge, and you have to consider that much of that technology was taken by you, it was not given"

"Maybe not, but the three most potent devices we have were given to us and we are bound by treaty in how we distribute those technologies" Weirs tone was warning.

G'kar sighed, "Let me guess, your shields and your gauss rifles for two"

"Asgard technology, with some human innovation, several of the newer Asgard vessels are actually using our hybrid designs for shields, the third is the new Impulse drive technology that as yet, you have not seen2

Delenn looked up, "interested, pulse lasers?"

Weir smiled, "Earth Human technology, one of the very few advanced technologies we came up with ourselves"

"That's your best shot2 Rodney said, earning a 'what?' from Sheppard.

"Its simple, we both have laser technologies, technologies we could hybridise if we had a central place every race could freely get at to actually develop these things. Same for several other technologies, we both have they are just different so a lot of the earth Politicians will have their fears about sharing technologies appeased"

"Play down the diplomatic aspect of the station slightly depending on the audience, build up the military research aspect..." Weir mused.

"The whole Delta site aspect will appeal to a few" Sheppard commented.

"Excuse me? Delta site?" Rodney asked.

"Well, we already have an Alpha and a Beta site..."

Weir smiled, "another fallback position, this one with allies known to be in the area"

"Think we can spin it?"

Weir beamed at Sheppard, "hell yeah"


	17. Sixteen

10: Dawning Alliance  
by Chaoseternus

When Enerina is sent to investigate why every gate in an area of space will not establish a wormhole, she finds something totally unexpected...

Thank you to my reviwers, you know who you are!greyangle: There are no immediate plans to add any more races  
mikibee: in this universe, there is ONLY one Earth and thats the Tau'ri Earth, no EA  
Someone: totally out of my control. NIS2005 managed to corrupt my windows install when i tryed to upgrade, and even on a clean install it managed to corrupt itself. Went back to Norton2002 and immediately had a Dual-hardware failure, IDE controller and DVD-RW drive.  
Needless to say, all that meant writing suffered

Sixteen

RSS Command, RAF/RSS St Athan, Earth

Admiral Thompson was not in a good mood. Through no real fault of his own, he and his Command were receiving heavy flak from the Politicians. Politicians who expected the fleet to constantly grow without interruptions despite the resources that even they had to agree needed to be diverted to the Colonial Relief effort, then onto fortifying Edonia. Politicians who had been told time after time that they could have the growth they wanted _if _ they were willing to fork out for it.

Politicians who literally _laughed _ when told the RSS needed more funds to continue expansion; otherwise they would have to wait on Edonia. Not that Thompson could blame them, the money literally wasn't there, even spread across three 1 st world governments, the RSS was an expensive operation, the SGC was worse off, they only had America and Russia funding them and whilst America often seemed to have money to burn, that wasn't the case. Russia was, as always, cash poor and people rich which wasn't very helpful, but they were able to provide a number of SG teams, each of which it was openly acknowledged, copied every report they made to send back to Moscow .

He had managed to get seized NID funds added to the RSS and well, mainly to the SGC coffers, which allowed them to reduce their debt somewhat and arrange for each MTB squadron to be brought up to full strength, but it was a drop in the ocean of what they needed to do to build up the allied forces ready for the War.

Still...

The _Sentinel _ refits had begun, indeed _Sentinel _herself would be ready within the month and Commander Harris was already pencilled in as her CO at the insistence of the Colonials, who had also dropped the Gold Cluster upon the somewhat unconventional officer for his efforts in bringing the Second Colonial Fleet from Red Line Anchorage to Tau'ri controlled space.

Two _Sentinels _ under refit at _Ravenbright, _three at _Thundersdawn... _

Five more ships, only two of which would be added to the Tau'ri fleet.

Well, every little helped but he would have to watch how they were used, they seemed, to his eye at least, to be more suited to Fleet actions rather then lone-wolfing it.

He chuckled, he had little doubt Harris would do his best to disprove that theory on his maiden voyage. It was something to encourage, to a point. After all, there was only one way to truly show what a ship could and could not do and despite what many of the Politicians and the techies might think, that was still by doing, by actual trying it and seeing what worked and what didn't.

Still, he hoped Harris didn't bend her too much After all, he didn't want to lose the office betting pool did he?

And now, he had to think on this proposal that had arrived from the Allied Races, that they build a station for the Tau'ri in exchange for technology and a limited number of ships permenantly stationed.

It had its attractions, it truly did, and unlike Star Trek Thompson paused, make that, unlike the Star Trek universe, they didn't have a Prime Directive to deal with Well, actually they did and that was the problem. Theirs wasn't about preserving cultures, theirs was a lot simpler.

Don't screw up.

Simple to say, not always simple to do, and putting technologies, however circumspectly into another races hands always had the potential to go balls up. Not that he had much choice really, it would really add to the strain on Personnel and Training Divisions but there were far too many advantages to let this one go by.

Far too many...

Thompson didn't like to look a gift horse in the mouth too closely, but frankly, sometimes you had too, and this smelt like one of those times.

But dammit, there was no way in hell he was going to be able to get a personal look, to meet the races who were giving this proposal and judge for himself, he had to trust his people on the scene.

And that was the crux of the problem, the one person he trusted most on the scene, strange as it might seem to an outsider that he trusted a Goa'uld, was out of the action having once more landed herself in hospital after going to far trying to save somebody else's life.

There was another problem too, part of their agreement stated that if her ship was lost on a mission for the Tau'ri then the Tau'ri were obliged to replace it. Whilst he was tempted to just give her one of their _Ha'tak's, _or even ask the SGC to cut-out a Goa'uld ship for her, their were advantages in giving her one of the Tau'ri designed ships too, not just the level of trust and faith it implied they had in Enerina.

Truth be told, the choice wasn't really that hard. The Goa'uld' ships the Tau'ri used were either noticeably altered during the refits that made them operational once more, or were unmodified System Lord ships, very much outclassed by the ships of Maktenos and Anubis.

Giving her a System Lord ship would be a step down from her old vessel, which would be noticed, and would reduce her effectiveness, giving her any of the other _Ha'taks _ would negate the advantages of having an allied Goa'uld on a Goa'uld hull due to the noticeable modifications, modifications which were recognisable Tau'ri in style. A cutting-out expedition to acquire another ship from Maktenos or Anubis was out too, both had lost too many ships, both guarded theirs far too carefully and put too many safeguards in place against theft or desertion nowadays.

No, they could only give her a Tau'ri warship.

Which meant a _Dauntless, _a _Prometheus, _one of the _Sentinels _ that would be joining the Tau'ri fleet, or a _Britannica. _

A _Britannica _was out, the first three ships were already allocated, or at least pencilled in and given their flagship status, placing Enerina in command of one of them was frankly, politically unsound. However much _he _ might trust her, the Politicians were far less willing to forgive her past and her race, they would certainly question any move to place her in command. Besides which, she would have to wait far too long for a _Britannica _ to become available.

A _Sentinel _ was out too, whilst the Colonials would have little trouble with her in Command of one of their hulls, Enerina did after all lead the Relief Fleet sent to meet the refugees and had almost died proving that a human could be released from a Cylon, she would have to wait months before scratch that, a year at least. This batch of _Sentinels _ was already allocated; she would have to wait for the next at least.

That left

_Defiant. _

Perfect.

Despite her near ready status, that new _Dauntless _II didn't have a command crew, a drunk driver having killed her Captain and XO as they left Colorado Springs for their leave, her tactical officer being medically discharged and the helm officer sectioned. That left the Engineering Officer amongst others, but he had seen their files, he doubted they would have any problems working with Enerina and frankly, she would need a core of experienced Tau'ri officers and NCO's, especially whilst she got used to the ship.

Thompson grinned, his mind dredging up an image of several politicians he could think of and their likely reaction to this decision. Kealty being the worst, lecherous bastard, but _Defiant _ was an RSS hull, Kealty would not be able to influence his decision and he would most likely have the support of the PM. He had appeared to like and respect Enerina the one time he had met her.

Saved him the problem of having to dredge up a new Command crew anyway, even if it would delay _Defiant _ making the operational list whilst her Jaffa crew got used to the Tau'ri systems.

Hmmm let's see.

Arrange transport for Enerina, her crew and any medivacs from Minbari space, said transport would have to be escorted. Make Weir, the mission second official Commander of the Tau'ri mission in that area, hope Sheppard can balance her, stop her falling into the usual traps for Civilians in charge in military operations.

Oh yes, and get the SAS or MI-6 to sneak some cameras in Vice-President Kealty's office. His face should a picture when he gets the news and maybe they will get lucky and catch him pulling one of his tricks. It would remove one thorn from their side at least.

Murrielle would appreciate the job anyway; she hadn't had much to do since most of the NID cells fell.


	18. Seventeen

10: Dawning Alliance  
by Chaoseternus

When Enerina is sent to investigate why every gate in an area of space will not establish a wormhole, she finds something totally unexpected...

Seventeen 

Weir sighed, wearily looking down at the slowly disappearing pile of paperwork on the strange, almost fluid desk the Minbari had graciously provided for her use.

She knew, had known all along that the local races would have to fight and worse, they would have to lead the fight in this area of space but she had never counted on being in charge, of trying to keep these rather insular races together and in the fight.

She was just supposed to be the Diplomat, to talk the locals into assistance, she had not received any military training, to be honest, she had a certain contempt for the military, often considering their very presence a sign that there had been a failure to communicate, to talk.

Yet, here she was leading a military force that consisted of a mere four combat ships, six once _Valour's Vengeance _and _Valour's Sword _ returned from their supply and Medevac run to Earth and she was forced to admit to herself at last, that she had been wrong.

Diplomacy wasn't everything, some people... some _beings _ just didn't care for talk and it needed a strong military to deal with them. For her, it was a profound realisation and one that, she would later admit, made her a far better leader and politician because it allowed her to acknowledge that Military Action had its place, and being willing to use it for the tool it was.

Still, not only did she have to ensure that the Allies didn't become divided, not an easy task considering that each race had a history of keeping to itself, that alliances tended to just exist for a purpose, for the Then and There rather then a greater purpose and that as soon as they saw no reason for the alliance, the locals had historically shown no hesitation in breaking it off.

It didn't help that there was unrest amongst the Minbari, the return of the Shadows had brought fear to many and that was not a good thing, not when the Grey Council was seen by many to have formed a Alliance with the lesser races' of the Narn and League out of a knee-jerk reaction. That was a perception which Weir could understand, things had moved so fast that it was easy to see how people could think their government hadn't thought; that their government had just reacted.

It didn't help that word of the destruction of the _Del Shakka Mel _had leaked, and how easily the advanced ship had been destroyed too. It only added to the fear and confusion.

And yet somehow she had to keep the Alliance together and keep track of everyone's fleet strengths and ensure the search for the Shadow Fleet was maintained _and _ keep her ships positioned to be able to respond to a major move made against any member of the Alliance .

She didn't have enough people, enough ships by far and whilst the Allied races had transferred a few hulls to her direct command temporarily, it wasn't enough. Yet, she knew she wouldn't have those hulls for long, the Drakh were striking too many places, causing too much damage and the war against the Centauri still took almost all the forces the Narn had, let alone the League Navy remnants trying to free there lost worlds.

She needed more ships, more people.

She knew she couldn't have them.

Dammit, what she wouldn't give for a _Beliskner _ or _O'Neill _ right now.

Her prayers were about to be answered.

xxx

"okay, so we wrangle, Paters a promotion and stick her in charge down there, she's got the skills"

O'Neill nodded, agreeing with his XO, to a point, "She's got the skills yes, but she hasn't had anywhere near enough time in grade. Any attempt to promote her will be nixed higher up and without that promotion those anal-retentive's at R&D aren't going to listen to her, you know that"

"Oh, big words General"

O'Neill shot Ferreti, now with a permanent limp, courtesy of a Staff weapon that got too close, a mild glare.

"You know, I could temporarily place you in command of R&D til Command can find someone properly qualified and ranked..."

O'Neill smiled at the look of horror on Ferreti's face and mentally marked a One up on his tallyboard.

Then, promptly vanished in a flash of white light.

Ferreti's jaw dropped, it had been a _long _ time since he had sent that effect but he recognised it for sure.

xxx

"Thor, me old buddy, long time no see"

"Indeed O'Neill, it is good to see you too"

"So, I am going to take a wild guess and say," O'Neill paused, his mind flickering back to every time the Asgard had visited, and since he knew the SGC or RSS hadn't asked for help that left... "What can we do for you now?"

"On this occasion, nothing"

O'Neill's jaw dropped, was this a purely social visit at last?

"More, what can we do for you"

Apparently not, pity, he hadn't exactly had a lot of occasions these last few years to shoot the breeze with his friend, what with Thor never taking the time to visit and all.

"After all, you are responsible for the destruction of all the replicators on the Homeworld"

O'Neill blinked, "what? When did that happen? Was there a memo? If so, you know I don't read those things"

"You said it yourself; we should just shoot a great big rock at the damned thing and watch the impact'"

O'Neill glanced down at this friend, "didn't you say that the impact would blow some of the replicators into orbit?"

"Indeed, but then you destroyed the Aschen homeworld by encouraging them to dial into a black hole"

"Yea, about that, that was entirely self-defence, I mean..."

"Your actions and that of your people are not questioned in that matter. We know all to well that sometimes any race is forced to do what it must to defend itself"

"Oh, okay. So, you were telling me about destruction of you homeworld"

"It took me a while to turn those two ideas into a workable strategy and during that time, containment of the Replicator threat became very tricky, requiring a network of stasis satellites to be deployed around the entire star system. But, I have learned from you over the years and your use of black holes and projectiles offered an interesting solution"

O'Neill kept the comment about not remembering using black holes as projectiles before to himself, and instead smiled proudly at Thor, if this was going where he thought, then Thor really had learnt of him. SG-1... the _old _ SG-1 would be so proud.

And Hammond... well, Hammond would have another ulcer.

Or two.

"It required every resource we had for several years and many Asgard were lost but eventually we were able to place a containment device around a black hole, losing forty ships in the process"

"Damn" O'Neill muttered, dismayed at the loss of so many ships and people.

Then he thought about containing a black hole, "damn, you don't do things by halves do you?"

Thor nodded, "Once the containment device had been suitably prepared, it was sent on a collision course for our homeworld, surrounded by a modified stasis field that allowed it to move at normal speeds despite the relative slowdown of time within the stasis field we were projecting over the system."

"We have no doubt that they tried, but the replicators hadn't been able to use the time-dilation device present on the homeworld to counter our projected stasis field, The black hole arrived at the homeworld and the containment field was switched off"

"Bye-bye replicators..." O'Neill shook his head, "Thor, remind me never to piss you off, okay?"

Thor's eyes twinkled and O'Neill knew his little friend was amused.

"So, it took you this long to show up to gloat?"

"It has taken this long for our race to recover enough for even a single ship to be spared. Too much resources were diverted from rebuilding to creating the Stasis satellite network, then the containment of the black hole" Thor's eyes were troubled, and O'Neill squatted down, reaching carefully over to hug his friend.

"Only two things really matter though kid. You and your people survived and you didn't give up everything you believe in to do it"

Thor nodded, it was scant consolation but it did have the virtue of truth.

"So, going back to the whole, what you can do for us thing, were you serious?"

Thor glanced up at his friend, and smiled.


	19. Eighteen

10: Dawning Alliance  
by Chaoseternus

When Enerina is sent to investigate why every gate in an area of space will not establish a wormhole, she finds something totally unexpected...

Eighteen 

Thor was impressed, he had to admit.

He knew it was easy to underestimate these humans, a trap he tried not to fall into. They did after all show the same passion for knowledge, the same determination and drive and the same dark core within that had characterised the ancients.

Great adventurers they might have been, architects and healers too, but however much they tried to rationalise themselves, saying it's for the greater good', we can't stand by whilst such evil is carried out', they were always the first into a fight, into a war and always the last out.

These humans showed all that and more. They had a darker core to themselves certainly, as if some dark creature sat on their shoulders constantly egging them on to do darker and nastier deeds in the name of the greater good' or personal power, a demon within which controlled many but those who could resist it, it made stronger. It wasn't a flaw the ancients had shown that often.

But then again, he had never called an ancient friend; there never was an ancient whom he had ever gotten close to. They had been allies yes, acquaintances certainly and there was no enmity or hatred between their peoples and never had been. But, they had never been friends, not as races, not between individuals.

The humans were one up there, he had individuals in the ranks of the SGC he considered to be friends, and those same individuals, the original SG-1 were considered to be friends of the Asgard people. The Ancients had never gotten under the Asgard skin, so to speak, like that. These humans had.

Yet, Thor wouldn't go so far as to call their races friends. Too many humans did not even know of the Asgard and too many of those who did had proven themselves to be cast of the same die as the Goa'uld.

And now, he had to add bold' to the list of human virtues the Ancients didn't have, or in this case, didn't show that often.

He remembered a comment he had once heard O'Neill make about having a pair of big brass reproductive organs and in this case, the Tau'ri had certainly shown they had _those. _

He glanced at his displays once more, shaking his head a little awed at the massive construction project underway within the depths of the Edonia nebula.

Taking a system, one that Anubis considered to be of strategic importance from him and planning to keep him out. Yes, they had a pair of brass ones all right.

Still, he didn't have long before he had to return home, the situation in Asgard space was still way to fragile for him to take the leisurely holiday helping out his friends like he so desperately wanted, and hadn't had in over a thousand years.

There would come time enough for that when Asgard were no longer dieing of diseases and lack of food, both supposedly cured long ago but returned anew with the near collapse of civilisation after the destruction of the homeworld and the diversion of every resource the Asgard had to containment and then destruction of the Replicator threat.

Whilst O'Neill hadn't asked for anything big, or particularly resource intensive, he had asked for a number of small favours and whilst Thor knew he would have no difficulty carrying them out, it did mean travel time and build time.

First off...

Scan the Ancient device and dump the results from the superior Asgard sensors onto the computer cores of the defending Tau'ri warships. Curse the Ancients for their healthy dose of arrogance once more as the readings come in and send a copy of the readings straight home for analysis. The Ancients hadn't mentioned anything like this, or Thor would have made it an Asgard stronghold long ago. The idea of Anubis or Maktenos having control of such a device, an interdimensional gate, just sent shivers up his spine.

Second off, deploy a satellite which would instantly inform both him and O'Neill of any activity through the gate. O'Neill already had the Earth receiver...

Hmmm...

Should have left one with either Hammond or Carter in the Sol system too. No matter, he would drop one before he went home.

Next off, to check on the weakening Hyper Barrier.

Damn.

Now _that _ was a feat to be proud of.

How had the Ancients managed it?

Sure, they had been more advanced _then, _before their arrogance and their tendency to jump into any fight head first got them killed but this was beyond advanced, this was true manipulation of the laws of nature themselves, not just use of those laws.

They must have had to do something cataclysmic to get this barrier to form in the first place, to separate Anubis and Iblis from their fleets and keep them away from their technologies, infrastructure and the like. Yet, they also managed to have it maintain itself for a thousand years.

Impressive, even more so that it looked, from a distance, to be a purely natural occurrence. Yet it wasn't, the sensors of his _Colonel Carter _ could just pick out traces of an old underlying structure amongst all the natural chaos.

Still, that was another scan log to dump to the Tau'ri and copy for Analysis later. He had little doubt that a number of Asgard scientists were in for a real treat once this data landed in their laps. He had no doubt they would also try to arrange an expedition to both locations, but Thor knew there would not be time for purely scientific curiosity for years yet. They would have to rely on whatever data the Tau'ri could get, O'Neill had already promised to pass it on.

Next stop, Minbar and _they _ weren't expecting him which could make things interesting. He just hoped Wier would get word and vouch for him before he had to start disabling ships, of course, when one is as technologically aware as the Asgard, its easy to help luck along a little...

xxx

Groaning, Weir yawned, groggily rising up from her bed as her alarm sounded. Then, abruptly stopped, all trace of tiredness washed away in an instant as she caught sight of the message written on a heavy plastic and attached to her door.

Her _locked _ door.

With Minbari Warriors and Marine's patrolling the corridors outside, indeed the entire complex and both Tau'ri and Minbari sensors running constantly on security mode.

And no alarm having been raised during the night, nor had she been woken up at all. Damn. Whoever managed that was either very good, or very lucky.

Weir rose up, pistol sliding easily from under the pillows and into her hands as she carefully walked towards the note, wearily glancing around the room for any other signs of intrusion.

She glanced at the note, and groaned, slipping the safety back onto her pistol.

Damn O'Neill he was even teaching aliens his own thankfully unique brand of humour now.

She grabbed the radio of her desk, "Wier to Sheppard, you up?"

"Ask me again after about twenty coffees..."

Weir smiled, as she imagined the look that would soon be appearing on Sheppard face, "did you know the Asgard are sending a ship here?"

"The Asgard? bang ow, shit that hurt. Asgard? Why? When? Who did that happen, I thought they weren't talking to us now"

Weir glanced at the note, a wry expression on her face, "Thor left a note whilst I was asleep"

"In your room?"

"Yep"

"Perving aliens... lovely"

The wry look was replaced with a disturbed one, "Sheppard? Please keep your thoughts to yourself"

xxx

Thor's visit wasn't a long one, O'Neill had asked for the _Stingray _to be shipped back to Earth for repair something he knew the O'Neill class could do to far larger vessels but it was a capability the Tau'ri didn't have yet, not over significant distances.

But Thor couldn't be bothered with the effort it would take, far easier to just repair the compact warship himself in situ and let the Tau'ri decide what to do with it then, after all, it wasn't as if the ship didn't have a crew already aboard to run her.

Next on his list was an update on the Drakh/Anubis alliance, something he wanted for himself and for his people, after all, after the Replicators, Anubis was the next big threat and they would have to get involved at some point. Besides which, he had a bone to pick with Anubis and he would pick it, even if he had to make Anubis corporeal just so he could pull his bones out one by one...

Oh no, he told himself inwardly, not a sore subject _at all. _

Damn, O'Neill really was rubbing off on him, even his inner voice was getting sarcastic.

Still, despite Weir's obvious hinting he couldn't stay.

One last quick stop at Earth, then it was back to Asgard space and rejoin the rebuilding.


	20. Nineteen

10: Dawning Alliance  
by Chaoseternus

When Enerina is sent to investigate why every gate in an area of space will not establish a wormhole, she finds something totally unexpected...

Nineteen 

Weir pushed aside another report of a Centauri defeat, with the combined forces of the Narn and Minbari leading the assault against them, aided by the few League Vessels and her Tau'ri warships there defeat was pretty much inevitable, even with the distraction caused by the Drakh and Anubis. For the Centauri, it was merely a matter of time now, already they had been pushed out of League space almost entirely and most of the worlds on the borders had fallen to the alliance forces.

The Alliance had taken few losses there, that's all that mattered.

Against the Drakh however...

Weir sighed, the PDA in her hand proclaiming of a number Minbari Victory', one with large losses on the Minbari side. The Drakh hadn't been able to advance; they were too easily outmanoeuvred for that, but they were destroying warships, killing trained personnel and damaging infrastructure. Even worse, they were finding the taskforces sent to search for the Ancient fleet with uncanny accuracy, making the search practically impossible.

Uncanny accuracy she reached across, grabbing another memory card to slide into her PDA. Dropping the old into her In' pile, she glanced quickly through the statistics some anal-retentive aboard the _General Hammond _ had arranged and smirked.

They found the search groups too often and too accurately, they might as well just paste ambush me!' on there foreheads, even she could see that.

She tapped the comm. button on her desk, "Shepard? Can you ask the Minbari and Narn liaisons to see me please?"

Now, if they could just figure out the source of the Drakh's intelligence and turn it, or at least neutralise it; or them for that matter, it would make things a lot easier.

xxx

Lenneir hated this.

He was many things, aide and assistant to Delenn of the Grey, loyal and trustworthy and many more besides. He had never expected to add Mission Commander and Bait' to that list.

He didn't like it.

Okay, he admitted to himself wryly, he absolutely _hated _ being bait. The feeling of knowing that the enemy is coming for you, knowing you have to appear unprepared, knowing you have to take the knocks, even if it means your death until the jaws swung shut.

Yes, he hated it.

But, he would do it for the Minbari, for his people.

He carefully ignored the voice which reminded him that he had turned the opportunity' down, until Delenn herself had asked.

"Sensor Ping... reading buried data code... 4498920, its _Stingray, _bang on time for twelve hour check-in"

"Understood"

Lennier relaxed a little; at least their main party favour' was still nearby, fully stealthed and just waiting for somebody to look at him and his ships funny.

"Scan of second planet complete, no signs of advanced technology"

"Take us to the third world and begin scans" he ordered, automatically.

He shuddered suddenly, glancing around. He was being watched, yet nobody was looking his way

"They're here"

He hadn't realised he had spoken that out aloud till he saw the looks the Bridge crew were sending him, followed rapidly by calls on the intercom for the crew to come to readiness.

Whether he knew it or not, his crew _trusted _ Lennier and they knew all to well that their race was psychic and that such premonitions were not to be taken lightly.

Lennier ordered the scans of the third planet continued, not that he expected to find anything, this was a dead system after all and he didn't want to give anything away, it would spoil the trap if the Drakh were really out there.

xxx

"They're here" unconsciously echoing Lenniers words, Dodge whispered his thought out loud.

The result was the same; humans might not be a psychic race generally but those crew who had been with Dodge for a while, and in a few cases that meant since the Belao class Diesel Submarine _Stingray, _knew to trust Dodges perception.

Quietly, the crew brought the stealthed warship to near full readiness, as close as they could get without compromising their ships stealth.

Not noticed by the wary, waiting Alliance vessels, the stars eclipsed momentarily as a dark, predatory shape passed across them, moving swiftly, decisively towards the small, visible Minbari fleet.


	21. Twenty

10: Dawning Alliance  
by Chaoseternus

When Enerina is sent to investigate why every gate in an area of space will not establish a wormhole, she finds something totally unexpected...

Twenty 

Dodge watched, shocked and fearful as a fifth Minbari vessel vanished from his scopes, its unidentified destroyer still unseen by the _Stingrays _ sensors, and, if the transmissions were anything to go by, barely seen by the Minbari either. They at least had the advantage, they had been shown a thousand years ago how to detect the Shadows, but in that thousand years, their sensors had changed and the ability weakened. _Stingray _ saw nothing on her passive sensors, and couldn't go active without losing all stealth, all surprise.

Dodge winced as another _Sharlin _ vanished, screw it, the situation was fubar anyway.

"Battlestations! Make all tubes ready in all respects including opening the outer doors, raise shields and prep all weapons batteries, we are going in"

"Aye sir, surface the boat!"

"That's drop active stealth Emily"

"Just going with what I know sir"

"Active sensors are up... no contact sir"

"Damn it to hell, alright..." Dodge paused, "ping the sensors"

"Sir, that procedure damages the arrays"

"Right now, I don't really care, ping them!"

Pinging the sensors was an option recently added to the Avoid unless totally fubared' section of the operations manuals for ships of the _Prometheus _ and _Dauntless _ classes. It involved turning the arrays to stand by for fifteen seconds whilst charging several capacitors. At the fifteenth second, the energy stored by the capacitors would be released to surge through the sensors. There was no question that it compromised the arrays, reducing their useful life every time the manoeuvre was used. There was no question that the sensor returns generated tended to be fuzzy, the returned energy being more then the receivers were designed to handle.

"Contact!"

There was no question that it tended to get results if nothing else would.

"Contact is fading..."

"Now I know what it feels like for the Captain of an ASW destroyer" Dodge wryly commented, before ordering, "keep pinging, it's the only way we're going to nail this sucker"

"Sir, signal from the Minbari ships, they say our sensors bursts are crippling their systems"

"Damn it, stop the pings" Dodge swore, fluently in English and Goa'uld. Another Minbari vessel vanished from the scope, this time a Tinashi. He closed his eyes, slumping down slightly and his voice was harsh as he spoke once more.

"Sound the retreat, all ships to make best speed for MakeSafe"

"Sir"

"We've lost this one Emily, sound the retreat"

xxx

Dodge groaned as he saw Weir waiting for him as he stepped out of the airlock onto the Minbari shipyards. He didn't feel up to this, not now.

"Dodge, a word"

"Can it..."

"No, it can't wait" Weir interrupted him, gesturing the Captain to follow her, she strode off down the corridor, ignoring his mutterings totally.

Dodge swore; "he really didn't feel up to this right now."

He followed anyway.

The meeting wasn't what he expected.

"A Narn courier arrived six hours ago, bringing interesting news. The Narn moved into and successfully captured a Centauri system, their first in fact, and during a post battle sweep of the system to check for any surprises, they found this"

Weir dropped a lone printout onto the desk, and Dodge's eyes shot up, it matched the Minbari descriptions of a Shadow warship, more importantly, it also matched the somewhat fuzzy silhouette the _Stingrays _ sensors had been able to generate whilst in ping mode. This was the type of ship that had successfully destroyed his ambush.

"Hot on the Narn's heels came the League" another printout was dropped, "and an _F-302 _ from _Prometheus" _ a third printout dropped.

"All of them are buried on inhospitable planets very close to inhabited worlds"

Dodge glanced up, "Anubis has found at least one"

Weir nodded, agreeing personally, but she played the Devils Advocate anyway, "all we know is that somebody hostile attacked your group with a Shadow vessel, it isn't outside the realms of possibility, especially given the pattern that seems to be developing for how these things are hidden that somebody else had found and is using one"

"I don't believe that, it's Anubis"

"I agree, but we have to consider the alternatives too"

Dodge nodded, accepting the implied rebuke.

"So, what do you want to do about it?"

"Your engineer reported degraded performance on your sensors, bad enough that he recommended you head back to _Thundersdawn _ and have them worked over in the repair bay, you will do that and you will courier all the latest intelligence with you, including the sensor data of the Drakh and Shadow vessels and you will bring back a full analysis, understood?"

"Yes sir"

"You don't like the orders?" Weir asked at his tone.

"No sir, this puts me and my command on the sideline and I don't like that Weir, you need every ship you can get"

"I need every fully operational ship I can get," Weir shot back, "your sensors are compromised. As its stands, the only reason you weren't headed back earlier was because Thor helped you out. You're still shorthanded after your brush with the Drakh remember"

Dodge winched, of course he remembered, the _Del Shakka Mel _ had died that day, "aye sir. Anything else?"

"Yeah" Weir winched, contemplating the Minbari equivalent to Coffee, "bring back Coffee, lots of it"

Dodge chuckled, and slipped from the room.


	22. TwentyOne

10: Dawning Alliance  
by Chaoseternus

When Enerina is sent to investigate why every gate in an area of space will not establish a wormhole, she finds something totally unexpected...

Twenty-One 

Maktenos stormed, annoyed and angry around the centre of his command ships bridge, a new and very formidable _Rel'tec _ upgrade called the _Manifest Destiny _He, to put it mildly, wasn't in a good mood and the only ideas that seemed to help involved things he would much rather not do.

It didn't help his ease of mind that even his host, the Tau'ri Colonel Pierce _really _ didn't like the situation. Pierce wanted Anubis to win about as much as Maktenos did, and Pierce had made it clear that whilst he would much rather Earth remained free, given the choice between Anubis and Maktenos, it was Mak all the way. Maktenos at least tended to look after his people.

But Anubis was back in the fight, throwing Maktenos's forces violently from every planet he had managed to capture of Anubis's old domain and looked strong enough to shoulder his way straight through Maktenos to Earth. It was a bad situation. Whilst those annoying powerful and stealthy _Shadow _ warships were few in comparison to the ships of his Drakh servants, they had proved themselves extremely capable and the Drakh weren't exactly walkovers either.

It helped that the Loyalists, victims of incompetent leadership, frankly stupid demands on Anubis's part and a heavy campaign by the Secessionists were pretty much history now, but it was little comfort.

Maktenos _knew _he could turn the tide but only if he moved soon. Trouble was, he needed more ships then he had available to do so, and that meant doing something he had thought he would never had to do.

Pierces voice quickly reminded him that the enemy of my enemy is my friend' and Maktenos grunted. He didn't want to do this, he really didn't. But he would, because it would allow him to release the ships and resources he needed and he knew they would keep their side of the bargain, as long as he stood a chance against Anubis.

Groaning, O'Neill cursed as he reached for his trousers, the sound of a system-wide alert ringing in his ears. Again? For heavens sake's, they had just kicked the Aschen out not a day before and now they were back again?

Damnit, he hoped they were just here to offer a full and unconditional, he didn't think he could deal with another war right now. He doubted they were though.

The intercom bleeped, and O'Neill slapped it, as he reached over for his uniform shirt.

"Sir? We have Maktenos in system, he is requesting permission to speak to you"

The voice was startled, a little flushed but O'Neill didn't notice, he had stopped mid-motion, his arms halfway into the sleeves of his shirt.

"Could you repeat that?" He finally, managed to get out, not quite believing what he was hearing.

"Sir, Maktenos is insystem in an upgraded _Rel'tec, _his shields are up but weapons do _not _appear to be armed, and he is requesting permission to speak to you"

O'Neill thought about this for a second, then replied, "could you do me a small favour?"

"Sir?"

"Check the temperature in hell for me, cos it has to have just frozen over"

"Aye Sir" the voice came back, its tone indicating complete agreement.

xxx

"So, Makky, what you doing here?"

Maktenos ignored this, he knew of O'Neills attitude, it was best for his needs if he shrugged it off this time.

"We have a mutual enemy who is becoming somewhat of a problem"

Maktenos watched as O'Neill raised one eyebrow, a calculating look flickering momentarily across his face.

"Anubis?"

""And his allies" Maktenos confirmed, nodding slightly as the wary and almost shocked expression that O'Neill was trying to hide. Good boy, he had figured it out, even if he didn't really want to believe. But then, they had approached system lords for Alliances before, they had not been approached... well, not that he knew of anyway.

"They are a problem we have it common, are they not?" He waited for O'Neill's cautious nod, and then continued, "Then, I believe we should discuss the possibility of an Alliance


	23. Twenty Two

10: Dawning Alliance  
by Chaoseternus

When Enerina is sent to investigate why every gate in an area of space will not establish a wormhole, she finds something totally unexpected...

Twenty-Two 

"Do you think he's serious?"

The heavy... make that _excessive _ 512bit encryption currently used for important intersystem communication chewed up bandwidth something fierce, as a result the quality of the images shown were staticy and blurred, still, there was no mistaking the incredulous and gob smacked expressions on the faces of Hammond, who had asked the question, Adama and Thompson.

O'Neill had already thought about this, and nodded straight away, "yeah, I think he's serious but not in the way he's telling us"

"Explain!" Thompson barked, a little on edge at the thought of a hostile mothership hanging around in a system whose PDF forces were still shattered after the battle with the Aschen.

"I don't think he's interested in having us fight at his side, I think he is more interested in how many ships and Jaffa he can move if he doesn't have to worry about defending against us"

Hammond nodded, his expression thoughtful, "he's knows that having him between us and the bulk of Anubis's forces is in our best interests..."

O'Neill nodded, "and we don't exactly have a history of breaking agreements anyway. He wants to fight his enemies one at a time. Having us forced to assist him by treaty as and when we can is just a bonus and one he probably isn't that interested in. He's more interested in this flank suddenly becoming secure"

Thompson nodded, "makes sense, but how do we know he can be trusted?"

O'Neill shrugged, "Maktenos doesn't have a history of violating agreements either and this one is in his best interests"

"We need to talk to whatever agents we can find, Tok'ra Remnant, Free Jaffa, anyone who is in Maktenos's forces and is willing to talk to us and see what happens if we sign. If he wants forces this badly, then they will already have been warned and could move within minutes of that dotted line being signed" Hammond commented.

"Agreed, but that doesn't tell us he can be trusted"

O'Neill shrugged, "Any over Goa'uld, even most Tok'ra I would say watch your back at all times, but Maktenos I just don't know"

Adama broke in, speaking for the first time, "He is under heavy pressure from Anubis, the very fact that he is here suggests he can be trusted for the moment as he is showing weakness and from what I have heard, Maktenos doesn't like to show weakness. So long as Anubis is pressuring him, I don't think you need to worry. Enlightened self-interest will keep Maktenos honest. If he starts to gain the upper hand over Anubis though..."

"Then we worry" O'Neill mused, finishing off Adama's sentence.

He paused, then shuddering inwardly, he glanced almost defiantly at the screens and the waiting faces of his seniors, "I recommend we sign, but maintain full Intel watch on Maktenos and his forces"

"Agreed" Adama added, almost instantly.

Hammond and Thompson nodded, "how long do we have to make a decision?"

"Not long, he's getting antsy already" O'Neill replied.

"Fine," Thompson nodded, "I'll have to take this direct to the PM then, Hammond?"

O'Neill hid a smile as Thompson blinked, obviously catching sight of Hammond , already on the phone to Flight Ops, calling for a plane to Washington .

"Answers that one then..." Thompson looked straight at O'Neill, "We'll try to get confirmation from the Government to you ASAP, but if necessary, I am authorising you to sign on behalf of the RSS nations, a chance like this, to scratch one enemy of our list, even only temporarily, is too valuable to be missed"

"Agreed" Hammond glanced momentarily up from the phone, his hand covering the mouthpiece, "I am authorising you to sign on behalf on the US , but only if he goes to leave before I can get confirmation from POTUS understood?"

O'Neill nodded, "Understood"

Adama smiled, moving to one side so Roslin could take his place in front of the camera, 2General O'Neill, on behalf of the Colonial Government, I am authorising you to sign this treaty"

O'Neill nodded, rising from his seat, "I need to give Maktenos a progress report before he decides to leave, get me full authorisation and _fast" _

His screen blanked out.

Five hours later, it was done.

Six hours later, the first reports of major fleet movements by Maktenos to the point of virtually stripping entire segments of his space of forces started to arrive through hurried burst transmissions through the gate.

The pattern quickly became clear; Maktenos was sending everything in areas formally threatened by the Tau'ri to the frontlines with Anubis, leaving a very skeletal force behind.

The Tau'ri Commanders breathed their first signs of relief as it became clear that Maktenos hadn't left anywhere near enough forces on the border to threaten their interests. Now they only had Anubis, The Secessionists and the Aschen to worry about, neither of whom individually were believed to have as many ships as Maktenos.

For the Tau'ri at least, the war had cooled down slightly.


	24. Twenty Three

10: Dawning Alliance  
by Chaoseternus

apologies for the delay, got stale and had to back away from writing this verse for a bitRankukon alpha: the Aschen is TyrSabares fic, Strange Conclusions  
Mikiebee: well, blame the politicians: you have a better tech then everyone else, do you really think the politicians would allow you to give that advantage up? not to mention the effects of having been brought up on a diet of Star Trek and the Prime Directive...  
bigstu  
pagan twylight  
greyangle: would kill for that bank balance right now... in desperate need of a new harddisk...  
someone: i can only update SC when tyr remembers to send me the RTFs of the final version of each chapter... tyr knows this  
but the update for the site had been built now and is ready to upload as soon as i can get a ftp password issue sorted out  
aussie

Thank you to all the reviewers  
no thanks to who STILL havent fixed the vanishing formatting issue...

When Enerina is sent to investigate why every gate in an area of space will not establish a wormhole, she finds something totally unexpected...

**Twenty-Three**

"It was not meant to happen this way" Kosh observed, glancing implacably at the scene in front of him.

"No" Oma Desala commented, "you had planned to join us in our purgatory in what the humans call Pegasus, but we were long gone by then. You had planned to persuade us to aid your cause, but we were no longer on that plane, let alone in that place"

"They will fight"

Oma nodded, "humans always fight for what they believe in, it is a defining characteristic of theirs, one we had too, before our ascension"

"You do not entirely agree with our current state?" Kosh asked, calmly.

"I... agree with the state, just not the attitude of the majority of our race"

"Opinion is always allowed"

Oma frowned, if such an expression could be applied to a non-corporeal being, "but action is not, and direct action is often needed"

Kosh nodded, privately agreeing, but unwilling to voice that thought aloud, if Oma knew he had been turned to her point of view over the centuries, then she would not stop crowing until the thirtieth centenary of her ascension, a good ten thousand odd years from now.

"We made our deals to keep this plane safe and for all his evil and manipulation, Anubis has not crossed those lines yet. Bent them a bit maybe, but not enough for us to intervene directly"

"He needs to go" Oma replied, resolute.

"No doubt, but we can only act through our champions, you know this as well as I"

"As it stands, they will lose"

"Most likely, but we are already being watched, our manipulation of the intergate, both past and present has come to the attention of the others. They worry we will cause the treaties between us and the dark ones we unleashed on the universe to be nullified"

Oma nodded, that worry was always at the back of her mind too. But, for all the ascendants powers, seeing the future was not one of them. They could predict, no more. And they could predict wrong.

"They gained a valuable technology and two potential allies"

Kosh nodded, "but _they _ also made their play and the Romulans walk the stars here too"

"Indeed, but for all their manipulation, the Romulans are not the evil they wanted them to be. Self-serving yes, uncaring of others and those they consider to be inferior certainly but evil? _That _ is open to debate"

Kosh nodded, "they could be turned, but it will take time we do not have"

Oma glanced at Kosh, "as always, we must operate under the assumption we will have that time"

Kosh nodded, "Indeed"

"But for now, the Tau'ri and their allies must win"

"The dark ones unwitting agents are making their play; chaos will soon rock Earth, for the time of revelation is at hand"

Oma nodded, "it is a worry"

"Our easiest counter-play walks too close to the barriers and they watch us too close now"

Oma signed, "the people are receptive, we have worked well to aid the leaders in that endeavour, they may just have to ride it out"

"It will still be a distraction, and a distraction is not what is needed"

Oma mulled the comment over, "maybe... Maybe a distraction is _exactly _ what's needed?"

Kosh glanced at Oma, "for Anubis? It would have to be something that is already in place"

Oma grimaced, "we have nothing"

"We rarely do, we try anyway"

"Maktenos has forces enough, he _will _ delay Anubis"

Kosh finished the thought, "but Anubis has too much of a technological edge. Maktenos looks to the dark too much too, we can not improve his chances for fear of the threat he would be to Earth if he managed to finish Anubis off"

Oma smiled, tightly, "there is only one thing we can do"

Kosh glanced at Oma, waiting for her to continue. If she knew a way out, all the better, for he certainly couldn't see one.

"For all their advancement his ships and those of his allies can be destroyed by your old allies, the Minbari"

Kosh nodded, "but Anubis sees Maktenos as more of a threat and Earth is next. The Alliance races for all their numbers are not so much of a threat; he knows he can finish them later"

"The Babylon project would make them more of a threat"

"Not fast enough though. Anubis would also see it as a very vulnerable threat; he would destroy the station as soon as he had the opportunity"

Oma nodded, "but you know the station must be built, for it already has been built"

Kosh grimaced, "Valen"

"Indeed" Oma smiled, knowing that her companion had not liked, but had certainly respected the determined human who had led the war against the Shadows the first time around, "Maktenos would take advantage of a distraction"

"Anubis must see the Minbari as enough of a threat to be distracted or as a tool the Minbari are a psychic race and Shadow warships need psychic beings to control them. Therefore, he most likely will move against the Minbari and their allies, attempt to control them. Maktenos must know so that he can take advantage"

"And Babylon must be reborn"

Oma grinned, a malicious look hidden deep within her eyes, for she had no love for the Fallen Ascendants, "Divide and Conquer"

"We must move our pieces fast; we _will _ lose some of our champions"

Oma sighed, suddenly showing age and pain, "In war, people die. It has always been that way"

"True. I suppose then, we will be reading that horrible book again. What was it called again, One Thousand and One ways to be cryptic?"

Oma grimaced, "You know as well as I do Kosh, that being cryptic is part of the deal that keeps the higher deep ones away from this universe. Besides... a smile appeared on her face, cryptic is what the Champions expect from the Powers That Be"


	25. Twenty Four END

10: Dawning Alliance  
by Chaoseternus

When Enerina is sent to investigate why every gate in an area of space will not establish a wormhole, she finds something totally unexpected...

**Twenty-Four**

"We may have a problem"

Weir groaned, those were _exactly _ the words she did now want to hear as her prime team, Sheppard, McKay and Ford stepped into her office. Unfortunately, it was exactly what she was coming to expect.

"What now?"

"The second Shadow vessel _Prometheus _ found briefly before they nuked it" McKay didn't bother to hide his disgust at the thought of such an advanced vessel being destroyed, and Ford objected.

"Hey, the Drakh had arrived in system, it was either destroy it or let it fall into Anubis's hands"

"Yes, well" McKay replied, "despite rumour to the contrary I am not disgusted that it had to be destroyed, I can see the point. I am allowed to be disgusted at Anubis's track record though, four days is the longest we have ahd to look at a Shadow vessel before we have been forced to destroy it"

"In other words" Sheppard turned his gaze on Weir, "there is still aleak somewhere"

"I'm on it, but so far..."

"Yes well, that's not the immediate problem. The scientist on the _Prometheus _, a Lieutenant Forrest seemed to think that several aspects of the ships controls required a living being to be plugged in, so to speak for them to operate. From the tales of the last great war and the records from the other ships we searched, there is a lot of circumstantial evidence that points to this but it would require the being to be psychic"

Weir shrugged, "the Minbari have ESP, the odd rare human..."

"There's the problem" Sheppard interrupted, sliding a report across the desk, "a number of Minbari ships have been found. Instead of being destroyed outright, they are now being boarded and the number of bodies being left behind is way off from the number of crew"

"He's decided to take his crews' one way or another" McKay inserted, and Weir grimaced, her head dropping to rest on her hands. She could feel another migraine coming on already.

"Do we know how many he needs per ship?"

"No" McKay replied.

"Do we know how many Minbari he now has?"

"There no way of knowing Sheppard replied, too many ships have just vanished without a trace since the war began, most would have been outright destroyed. Of those ships he has boarded, some crew would have died defending their ships..."

"We cant even begin to guess" Rodney interrupted.

"The Minbari will not like being told they cant afford to allow themselves to be taken alive" Ford commented.

"No they will not" Weir looked up, "and I have to tell them"

Ford glanced apologetically at her, but Weir shrugged it off, he had spoken the truth after all.

"Okay, I want a full written report by 0400 tomorrow, including alternate explanations..." their was a collective groan, it was already 1900, 0400 meant they wouldn't be getting much sleep at all, "if any, this has to be passed on as soon as possible"

"My Lord!"

Maktenos glanced up with a grimace, tapping the button on his screen to clear the screen, the blueprints vanishing from it in an instant, "report!"

The over-enthusiastic young puppy of a Jaffa who had some how managed to wrangle himself a position on his Command ship, Maktenos wasn't interested in how as long as he did his job, tripped, planting his face at Maktenos's feat in a rather more rapid manner then was normally proscribed. Maktenos found it hard to suppress a chuckle, instead he sighed, rolling his eyes.

Why hadn't he gotten rid of this one, perhaps to another ship?

Ah yes, because he knew how to make a Communications array sit up and do handstands that's why. It made him... useful and to a point, tolerable.

"Re_port!2 _ Maktenos barked, letting a little exasperation and anger seep into his voice.

"Anubis has ordered more ships from the frontline, he appears to be trying to seize Minbari vessels"

Maktenos frowned, yes his last report had mentioned a growing movement of ships from the frontlines but not why but then, Pierce's memories told him Elint was an exact science yes, but only up to a point.

"Have you learned why yet?" he demanded, and the Jaffa shrugged, handing over a datacrystal.

"He is trying to capture Minbari alive and the captured Minbari are being taken to the shadow ships the Jaffa frowned, several ships have gone operational not long after the Minbari arrived actually, but I don't know _why" _

Maktenos smiled, "how many of the shadow ships he has found have gone operational _before _ the Minbari prisoners have arrived?"

The Jaffa frowned, his eyes going distant, "I don't think they are, not anymore certainly. At least, they are not broadcasting it in a way I can hear"

Maktenos smiled, ferally, "perfect"


End file.
